Santa Barbara County Fire Department and California Highway Patrol crews responded to remove a fallen eucalyptus tree in Highway 101 in Goleta Monday morning. No injuries were reported.
Santa Barbara County Fire Department and California Highway Patrol crews responded to remove a fallen eucalyptus tree in Highway 101 in Goleta Monday morning. No injuries were reported. Credit: Santa Barbara County Fire Department photo

Strong winds and heavy rain hit Santa Barbara County along with severe thunderstorm warnings Monday. 

Winds up to 55 mph were possible in Santa Barbara, Goleta and Carpinteria, the National Weather Service said. 

Multiple spinouts and collisions were reported on local highways, including one on Highway 101 near Summerland that caused lane closures. 

Downed trees were reported countywide and some blocked roadways and highways, according to emergency radio traffic.  

Several large trees were down in Goleta, including ones blocking Cathedral Oaks Road and Highway 101 near Fairview Avenue, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Southbound Highway 101 was completely blocked just south of Fairview Avenue and traffic was being diverted at the off-ramp, the CHP said. Some lanes were reopened as of noon.

Santa Barbara County Fire Department and California Highway Patrol crews responded to remove a fallen eucalyptus tree in Highway 101 in Goleta Monday morning. No injuries were reported.
Santa Barbara County Fire Department and California Highway Patrol crews responded to remove a fallen eucalyptus tree in Highway 101 in Goleta Monday morning. No injuries were reported. Credit: Santa Barbara County Fire Department photo

The National Weather Service issued a series of severe thunderstorm and severe weather alerts across the county as heavy rain and high winds hit the region.

Some western and southern parts of Santa Barbara County reported rainfall rates of half-an-inch per hour or more Monday morning. The monitoring station at Celite, south of Lompoc, had received more than 2 inches of rain in 24 hours and about 0.75 inches in one hour as of 9 a.m.

Firefighters remove a tree that came down on Cathedral Oaks Road, west of Patterson Avenue, in Goleta on Monday.
Firefighters remove a tree that came down on Cathedral Oaks Road, west of Patterson Avenue, in Goleta on Monday. Credit: Ray Ford / Noozhawk photo

Unplanned outages affected customers in Lompoc Valley and Santa Barbara Monday morning, according to PG&E and Southern California Edison outage maps. 

The rain amounts will likely increase as the morning continues, according to Mike Woffard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Woffard said the storm will move into Ventura County heading into the afternoon.

A downed tree blocks Highway 101 in Goleta Monday morning.
A downed tree blocks Highway 101 in Goleta Monday morning. Credit: Jeff Zamora photo

This storm could bring thunderstorms, hail, mudslides, strong winds, waterspouts and even small tornadoes, National Weather Service forecasters said. 

The flood advisory was in effect until 11:15 a.m. on Monday, and the wind advisory was in effect until 6 p.m.

Get local storm information from the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management and sign up for alerts. 

Check the latest weather forecast and alerts here. 

Noozhawk executive editor Giana Magnoli contributed reporting to this story.

The storm forecast for this week.
The storm forecast for this week. Credit: National Weather Service photo

— Noozhawk staff writer Daniel Green can be reached at dgreen@noozhawk.com.