Showers Roll In, With More on the Way

The county’s first storm since October wetted parched hillsides Monday, slicked roadways and sent crews scrambling to stack sandbags near hillside homes threatened by wildfires two weeks ago.

Rainfall totals were less than a quarter-inch for most locations throughout the western county, while the east county cities of Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley received little or no precipitation.

But the drizzle was enough to prompt landscaping crews in Thousand Oaks to begin sandbagging hillsides scorched in a 600-acre wild fire Dec. 26. The fire swept within 100 feet of luxury homes and condominiums near North Ranch Country Club before being extinguished.

Sandi Wells, spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department, said the brush fire denuded the hillsides above the homes of vegetation needed to absorb water.

“It’s that vegetation that sometimes keeps hillsides from falling,” Wells said. “So they are susceptible to mudslides and water runoff.”

Forecasters, meanwhile, say that Monday’s showers could be a prelude to a much stronger storm, which could dump up to 2 inches of rain along Ventura County’s coast and 4 inches in the mountains Thursday. The Pacific cold front is expected to move into the area late Wednesday night and blanket the county with heavy showers, said Ray Tanabe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“[Monday’s storm] was just to get the ground wet and get everybody ready for the good stuff on Thursday,” Tanabe said.

The low rainfall amounts did little to boost precipitation totals that are well below average for this time of year, county flood control officials said. With .24 of an inch of rain Monday, the County Government Center in Ventura recorded a season total of 1.27 inches, well below the 5.69-inch average for the date.

“We’re well into [the season] and we’ve only had one storm, in late October,” said Dolores Taylor, a hydrologist for Ventura County Flood Control. “We usually get at least two storms in November, and this year we didn’t get any.”

Tanabe said it is too soon, however, to call it a dry rainy season. Last January, he said, meteorologists also recorded low rainfall, but heavy downpours occurred late in the rainfall season, which continues through March.

“Last year, we were pretty dry around New Year’s,” Tanabe said. “But then we caught up in February and March.”

Moderate showers continued through the early afternoon Monday but were expected to taper off overnight as temperatures plunged into the mid-40s. Wednesday, skies will be partly cloudy with highs in the 60s, but the new storm system will begin to move in late in the day, Tanabe said. The storm is predicted to bring chillier air, with daytime highs reaching only the upper 50s and snow levels falling to 3,000 feet, meteorologist said.

The soggy ground and chilled air drove the homeless indoors, and operators of local shelters said they are bracing for a sharp increase in guests as the week unfolds.

Mark Ewens, project manager for the Salvation Army, which runs the Oxnard/Ventura Cold-Weather Shelter, said they typically assist about 100 homeless people nightly. But he expects to offer shelter and a warm meal to about 135 each night this week.

“We add more water to the soup and take out more blankets,” Ewens joked. “But we are prepared. We have lots of staff, blankets and grub, so we should be all right.”

Many of the homeless who streamed into the shelter Monday were those who make their homes in the county’s river bottoms. Even a small amount of rain turns the river’s often-dry banks into mush, Ewens said. Those abandoning the makeshift camps turned up with soggy clothes, he said. “We have donated clothing we give them until theirs dries out,” Ewens said. “Or sometimes they just pitch the old stuff. But most have learned how to take care of themselves in the rain.”

The drizzle also brought the usual havoc for drivers, leaving California Highway Patrol officers responding to a series of fender-benders. Gridlock clogged both sides of the Ventura Freeway on Monday morning as heavy showers coincided with the morning rush hour. CHP officials said there were four rush-hour hit-and-run calls.

Officer Robert Stuva said roads were especially slick Monday because it had been so long since the last storm dampened freeways, allowing grease and grime to build up. Despite the dangerous conditions on county roads, no major accidents were reported.

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County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Division and the National Weather Service in Oxnard for the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Monday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.04 0.79 5.09 Casitas Dam 0.15 3.06 8.47 Fillmore 0.12 1.15 7.17 Matilija Dam 0.01 3.12 9.24 Moorpark 0.08 0.95 5.35 Ojai 0.25 2.41 7.46 Oxnard 0.22 0.93 5.13 Piru trace 0.66 6.08 Port Hueneme 0.20 0.96 5.11 Santa Paula 0.12 1.64 6.49 Simi Valley 0.10 0.71 5.09 Thousand Oaks 0.25 0.86 5.44 Ventura Govt. Center 0.24 1.33 5.69

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