By Tony Biasotti
Ventura County Star
Copyright 2007 Ventura County Star
All Rights Reserved
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — It’s an “only in Southern California” moment: Ventura County residents are being told to watch out this weekend for rain, snow and wildfires.
Light rain was possible by this morning and perhaps some snow and ice at higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service.
The rain will clear quickly, but high winds expected to accompany it should continue through Saturday, forecasters said.
The winds won’t be as heavy as the near-record ones that blew through the county last week.
This weekend’s winds are expected to be 25 to 35 mph, with gusts of up to 65 mph in the inland mountains.
That’s windy enough for the National Weather Service to issue a “red flag” fire warning for most of Ventura County, effective until Monday morning.
In the Ojai area, where winds hit 70 mph last week, people were still cleaning up as they braced for the next windstorm.
“We had numerous power outages, many trees blown over, a couple of roofs gone, and some fires due to transformers being knock off power poles,” said Doug Breeze, the city of Ojai’s public works director.
The city has removed 450 tons of debris at a cost of about $25,000, and that doesn’t include the extensive damage to private property, Breeze said.
Throughout the county, 28,500 Southern California Edison customers lost power last week. Edison spokeswoman Nancy Williams said crews were ready for the next windstorm.
Rain might make things worse, because trees and power poles are more likely to blow over when the soil is wet, she said.
Rain would be welcome in other respects, though. It’s been a dry season so far in Ventura County, with most areas receiving only 15 percent to 30 percent of normal rainfall since Oct. 1, said Scott Holder, a hydrologist with the Ventura County Watershed Protection District.
“We may still be in a prolonged fire season,” he said.
It’s still early, however, in the rainy season.
With an El Niño system developing off the coast, Ventura County could quickly catch up to its historical norm, Holder said.