Another Strong Storm on Horizon

Ventura County suffered minimal damage from the rainstorm that swept through the region Christmas Day, but meteorologists warned that another storm is expected to move in Monday.

The next storm is expected to pack about the same punch as the last one, which means a small-craft advisory will be in place at Channel Islands Harbor for at least the next three days, said James Moody, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard station in Oxnard.

The advisory is designed to keep small boats and sailors with limited experience in rough weather out of the water as a precaution, Moody said.

Ventura County residents should expect sunny skies today, with northwest to westerly winds of 15 to 20 mph and high temperatures in the low 60s in the valleys and high 60s along the coast, said Curt Kaplan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard.

Sunday should bring similar temperatures and wind conditions, with clouds gathering in the afternoon as rain approaches.

Low temperatures on both days should be in the upper 20s to 30s in the valleys and in the low 30s along the coast, Kaplan said.

Although there were no fatalities Thursday, California Highway Patrol officers said they stayed busy responding to vehicle spinouts, hit-and-run collisions and downed utility lines and trees.

But the storm caused only minor injuries to people involved in dozens of rain-related accidents on Ventura County roads and highways, CHP officials said.

Although there were sporadic power outages caused by downed lines, which affected about 50 residences in Simi Valley, everything was nearly back to normal Friday, said Ernie Villegas, a spokesman for Southern California Edison.

“We had crews working throughout the night and through the day to repair the lines,” Villegas said. “Relatively speaking, from one storm that affected all of Southern California, we were actually pretty lucky in Ventura County.”

Thursday’s storm brought about 1 inch of rain to Ventura, about 3 inches to the mountains and about 2 inches to Simi Valley, meteorologist Eric Hilgendorf said.

Although officials were concerned about flooding and mudslides in areas that burned during the recent wildfires, particularly Simi Valley, Moorpark and Piru, the sites were spared by a rain that never turned into a deluge.

“It’s just like pouring water down your sink,” meteorologist Tim McClung said.

“If you start dumping gallons down there, it’s going to back up. As long as the rain comes in nice and steady and slow, even in the burn areas, we probably won’t have a problem.”