Rainfall Swamps Normal Levels

This is the kind of head start to the rainy season hydrologists dream of: not even November and 6 inches of rain has already fallen in Ventura County’s mountains, nearly 2 inches in the urban areas.

With the county’s rainfall levels already more than five times what they typically are at this time of year, residents picked their way around puddles Wednesday under skies brilliantly clear after a pounding overnight rain.

The storm brought with it strong winds that whipped power lines and left about 14,000 residents temporarily without electricity. It also dropped overnight temperatures into the 40s and kept things cool throughout Wednesday, with Thousand Oaks reporting a high of 58 degrees and Ventura reaching 61.

Based on the soaking, county fire officials contemplated calling an end to the fire season, then decided to hold off until they are sure the early storm was not just a freak occurrence.

“If we continue to be in a rainy pattern, then we will go ahead and close it in the near future,” county fire spokeswoman Sandi Wells said.

During fire season, every brush fire warrants an immediate response by five engine companies. When the season closes, that number goes down to one. “We don’t really want to cancel that before we know for sure what the weather is going to do,” Wells said.

Across the county, officials took a similarly cautious approach.

“We’re pleased to have this,” said John Weikel, a hydrologist with the Ventura County Flood Control Department. “But it’s really not a good indicator of what’s ahead.”

*

Alarmed by how much rain fell in the mountainous areas during the deluge--gauges at Matilija Dam registered more than 6 inches of rainfall by Wednesday afternoon--Sheriff’s Department deputies took to the skies to inspect the county’s creeks and streams for flood danger.

Dan Shea, one of the department’s helicopter pilots, said the aerial tour was prompted by memories of the drowning of 11-year-old Joel Burchfield in January. The Moorpark boy was crossing the normally tame Arroyo Simi on his way home from school when he was swept off his feet into the rushing water.

“That kind of made everybody aware that these streams can be really hazardous for kids,” Shea said. “I don’t know if this is enough rain to create flooding, but this will give us some information about how the creeks are doing.”

Weikel of the county Flood Control Department said the rain, though unusually powerful for this time of year, is not expected to create flooding or erosion problems.

*

“This early in the year most of the water will be absorbed into the ground,” Weikel said. “We don’t worry about flooding at all. This does put us way ahead for the time being though.”

Southern California Edison crews worked through the early hours Wednesday to restore electricity to thousands of residents who lost power in Tuesday night’s storm. Edison spokesman Rudy Gonzales said gusting wind and heavy rain were responsible for seven outages across the county.

Newbury Park took two hits during the storm, with rain damaging power pole insulation in one outage that lasted from 9:30 until 11:10 p.m. In the second occurrence, a palm frond caught in a line affected about 1,100 late-night TV viewers from 11:02 p.m. to 1:17 a.m.

Scattered outages also hit Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme, La Conchita and Fillmore.

“I’m sure we had every available crew out trying to restore service,” Gonzales said.

The first storm of the season typically creates the worse problems for the power company, he said, because dirt and debris stuck inside power pole insulation combine with rain and cause sparking.

Weather forecasters expected the final traces of the storm to disappear overnight. They predicted partly cloudy skies but warmer temperatures for Halloween, ranging from the upper 60s to the lower 70s.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

*--*

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.60 0.60 0.34 Casitas Dam 4.22 4.29 0.45 Casitas Rec. Center NA NA NA Fillmore 3.19 3.19 0.39 Matilija Dam 4.57 4.72 0.57 Moorpark 1.42 1.42 0.32 Upper Ojai 4.15 4.15 0.42 Oxnard 1.30 1.30 0.23 Piru 1.96 1.96 0.36 Port Hueneme 0.68 0.68 0.27 Santa Paula 2.40 2.40 0.35 Simi Valley 1.45 1.45 0.28 Thousand Oaks 1.35 1.35 0.26 Ventura Govt. Center 1.45 1.45 0.29

*--*