Rainy Christmas Likely for Ventura County

Rain might fall in Ventura County on Christmas Day for the first time in 20 years.

The county hasn’t had a rainy Christmas since 1983, but forecasters said there was a 70% chance that streak would end Thursday.

“We are expecting a half to one inch of rain on Christmas,” said David Gomberg, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard. There is a 20% chance of rain today, Gomberg said.

Low temperatures Thursday are expected to range from the upper 30s to upper 40s. Highs are expected to be in the upper 50s and lower 60s, meteorologist Curt Kaplan said.

There were scattered showers Tuesday throughout the Southland, with 0.17 of an inch reported in Ventura, 0.20 in Oxnard, 0.23 in Ojai, 0.18 in Thousand Oaks and 0.15 in Simi Valley as of 6 p.m.

“We like this kind of rain as opposed to the heavy downpour,” Kaplan said, noting that light rains are less likely to cause slides in areas hit by recent wildfires.

The snow level in the local mountains is predicted to be around 7,000 feet Thursday, but could drop down to 3,000 to 4,000 feet Friday, Gomberg said.

“Friday there could be problems driving on the Grapevine,” said Gomberg, referring to the stretch of Golden State Freeway that leads to the San Joaquin Valley.