Storm Gives Headache to Drivers but Is Welcomed by the County’s Growers

Commuters careened and farmers rejoiced Tuesday as a storm dropped more than a quarter-inch of rain in Ventura County’s coastal region and up to 2 1/2 feet of snow on its highest peaks.

There was even a brief blitz of hail in Santa Paula.

“For three minutes it was real hard,” Santa Paula police dispatcher Carla Samples said of the bead-sized hail. “Then there was a big clap of thunder and that was it.”

Conditions should be drier today, meteorologists said, with gusts and gradually warming temperatures.

The plethora of precipitation Tuesday made for slippery driving.

“It’s slow and slick and people are crashing all over the place,” said Mary Moody, a dispatcher for the California Highway Patrol.

But despite the slew of fender-benders, there were no serious accidents by early Tuesday evening. However, at 9 p.m. the California Highway Patrol was responding to a fatal accident on the southbound Ventura Freeway just north of California 33. Although the roadway was wet, a CHP dispatcher said it was not immediately known whether the accident, which resulted in the death of a pedestrian, was weather-related.

The precipitation brought welcome relief to local farmers.

Until last weekend there had been so little rainfall this season that some growers were irrigating their fields during what is usually the wettest time of the year.

“We’re still way behind last year,” said rancher Richard W. Pidduck, who has 140 acres of lemons and avocados in Santa Paula and Oxnard. “This is the best thing we’ve had so far all season. The orchard people are happy. Even the strawberry people are happy.”

Skies were expected to clear overnight, said Jeff House, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Today should be clear and breezy, with winds up to 30 mph out of mountain passes and canyons, House said.

“The lower elevations won’t be so bad, but it will still be breezy,” House said. “There will be a lot of Santa Ana action going on out there.”

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As Ventura residents at lower altitudes grappled with wetness, snow lovers flocked to the mountains Tuesday to frolic in the fresh powder that fell on back-country summits.

“People are coming to see it and to play in it,” said a ranger from the Mt. Pinos Ranger District, where the most snow fell. “There are a lot of phone calls from everywhere.”

Visitors are snowboarding, picnicking and just gazing at the snowy stillness, she said.

The ranger said most of the roads in her district were closed and those that were open required a four-wheel drive vehicle or chains to navigate.

Snow fell to about the 4,000-foot-level Tuesday, and meteorologists predicted it might fall as low as 3,400 feet Tuesday night.

Joe Pasinato, a spokesman for Los Padres National Forest, recommended that those heading to the hills go early in the day.

“Later in the day roads slick up, traffic intensifies and people’s patience slims down,” he said. “Care should be taken. If you don’t need to, we don’t recommend you try going on these mountain roads.”

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Despite two consecutive days of precipitation, county hydrologist Dolores Taylor said the gentle rains have left the soil far short of the 10 to 14 inches of accumulated rainfall that could cause flooding later in the season.

“We’ve got a long way to go before anything starts running off,” Taylor said. “You’re starting to see some real water in the creek but it’s real dribbly. You wouldn’t drown if you walked across unless you were real short.”

She said communities such as Simi Valley, which have more pavement, may incur more runoff, while less-developed land near the Ventura River may not have runoff until more than 2 inches of rain have fallen.

Overall, however, she said the rainfall was fairly equally distributed across the county.

Meanwhile, two to three miles of beach remained closed after a power failure at a municipal waste water treatment plant unleashed more than 250,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Ventura Harbor on Monday afternoon.

Warning signs were posted at points south of the harbor such as Surfers Knoll and McGrath State Beach, according to Elizabeth Huff of the county’s environmental health division.

The health advisory will remain in effect for at least 72 hours from Tuesday morning’s storm, Huff said.

Times Community News reporter Holly J. Wolcott contributed to this report.