Rise and Fall

Not everyone is complaining about the weather.

Water managers across Ventura County are watching reservoirs fill up and water consumption drop as the gentle rain continues to fall.

In Camarillo, for example, water use decreased 44% in December, compared to the base year of December 1989. Consumption for the entire year dipped 16%.

The rainfall has cut down the amount of water used on agricultural fields and on residential lawns, said Tom Smith, water systems superintendent with the Camarillo Public Services Department. Conservation practices of the community have also contributed to the significant decrease, he said.

Around the region, reservoirs are also filling up, but none have spilled yet.

Pyramid Lake is close to full, and the Lake Casitas reservoir near Oak View is about 9 feet from overflowing. Lake Piru reservoir is only at 63% of capacity.

“So far this winter, we’ve come up almost 9 feet [at Lake Piru], but we have another 30 feet to go before we spill,” said Jim Kentosh, manager of operations with the United Water Conservation District. “We’ve had a lot of rain, but most of it has soaked into the ground.”

It’s almost as if Ventura County, and much of Southern California, had suddenly been picked up and moved farther north--somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

At least that is where the kind of wet weather that the county has endured so far this year--and that is expected to continue for several days--belongs, meteorologists say.

“What we’ve been seeing is that the Jet Stream has been oriented in such a way that storm systems from the Pacific have been able to move into California,” said John Sherwin, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc.

“Normally, storms move farther north into the Pacific Northwest. This rainy season, the storm systems have been able to consistently come into California because no high-pressure system has built over the state.”

The immediate forecast, Sherwin said, is for improving weather today, with cloudy skies and possible breaks of sunshine in the afternoon.

But by Friday evening, a new storm is expected to move into the area, bringing more rain Saturday, Sunday and possibly Monday, Sherwin said.

“It won’t be the strongest storm you have seen this year,” he said. “But rainfall amounts could grow to as much as an inch. There is no end in sight to the wet weather, not for the next week or so.”

For the hillsides above Fillmore, where the Grand fire raged last spring and where most of the rain fell in the last two days, the relatively gentle precipitation throughout the season has been a mixed blessing.

“In many ways, it has been a blessing because it has allowed the native grasses to grow [helping stabilize the slopes],” said Dolores Taylor, a senior hydrologist with Ventura County flood control. “But any kind of high-intensity rain could bring a lot of mud onto the ranchers. It all depends on how much it and how quick [it falls].”

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.04 9.93 6.43 Casitas Dam 0.16 18.89 10.91 Casitas Rec. Center 0.24 17.92 10.89 Fillmore 0.16 15.01 8.96 Matilija Dam 0.47 21.56 12.08 Moorpark 0.24 10.72 6.89 Ojai 0.27 15.34 9.60 Upper Ojai 0.35 19.01 10.35 Oxnard 0.04 10.19 6.67 Piru 0.20 11.61 7.95 Port Hueneme 0.08 9.13 6.59 Santa Paula 0.28 13.80 8.21 Simi Valley 0.08 10.55 6.58 Thousand Oaks 0.12 11.17 7.18 Ventura Govt. Center 0.16 11.86 7.39

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