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Storm drops rain, raises temperatures
Forecasters predict more showers today
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More from County NewsThe cold weather that damaged some strawberry crops last week will give way to rain and warmer temperatures starting today.
The National Weather Service is predicting one-third to two-thirds of an inch of rain along the coast and valleys and up to an inch in the mountains when two wet weather systems move through the area.
"Hopefully this will be better for Ventura (County) than the last one," Weather Service Specialist Stuart Seto said.
Farmer Ed Terry, who grows celery, artichokes, strawberries and other produce on 1,100 acres in the county, isn't putting too much faith in the predictions. "I'll believe it when I see it," he said.
Both storms are coming in from the Gulf of Alaska. The first system, which Seto characterized as the weaker of the two, brought showers Monday evening and was expected to bring more this morning. The second, stronger storm was predicted to begin late today.
By Wednesday, there will be a 30 percent chance of rain, with mostly sunny skies by Friday.
The cloud cover should raise overnight temperatures in the county by serving as insulation.
Sunday night temperatures dipped to 28 degrees in Ojai and 31 degrees in Fillmore, with coastal and other valley areas ranging from 35 to 37 degrees.
Overnight lows were expected to climb to the 40s during the week, Seto said. At the same time, daytime temperatures will remain in the low to mid-60s.
Last week's cold weather caused minor damage to some end-of-season strawberry crops, which one farmer described as the dregs of the season, but growers have not resorted to special measures to keep the chill out.
Terry and farmer Henry Vega both had crop damage, but Vega said he wasn't expecting any more problems.
"I don't think it's going to be damaging," he said.
Terry Schaeffer, an agricultural weather forecaster, said colder weather can be beneficial to crops because it helps reduce detrimental insect populations and triggers plants' dormant state, which can be upended when it is unseasonably warm.
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