A flash flood watch has been issued for mountain areas in Southern California that have been scorched by wildfires in recent years, forecasters said Thursday night.

The watch was issued as a powerful storm was bearing down on the region. The heaviest rainfall is expected to hit Santa Barbara and Ventura counties Friday afternoon and reach the Los Angeles area in the late afternoon and last to about midnight, the National Weather Service said.

The flash flood watch was issued for areas that were burned by blazes such as the Station fire and Morris fire in the San Gabriel Mountains in 2009, the weather service said.

Those areas "will have the potential for flash flooding and debris flows," the agency said. Rainfall could total 3 to 6 inches in mountain areas.

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The next in a series of winter storms is set to move into Southern California on Thursday night, bringing with it cold temperatures and high surf.

The National Weather Service on Thursday morning issued a high-surf warning for the Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo county coasts. Officials predicted swells of 6 to 12 feet and said some sand erosion is possible during high tides.

The new storm could drop up to 6 inches of rain in mountain areas, forecasters said.

Preliminary estimates Wednesday night indicated that the storm could drop 1 to 2 inches in coastal and valley areas and 3 to 6 inches in the foothills and mountains Thursday through Saturday, the weather service said.

The downpours will be a result of the slow-moving nature of the storm, coupled with the possibility of thundershowers, said Bonnie Bartling of the weather service's Oxnard office.

"If the storm is staying over you and raining," she told The Times, "you're going to get more rain."

Rains should continue through Sunday morning, forecasters said.

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The National Weather Service issued a special weather statement, saying that light rain could  begin falling Monday night in Santa Barbara County and farther south by Tuesday.

"A more significant storm is then expected to push into San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties by early Wednesday morning, then spread south into Ventura and Los Angeles counties Wednesday afternoon," the weather service said.

The agency said snow levels were expected to be around 6,000 feet initially but could fall as low as 4,000 feet by Wednesday night. The snowfalls could affect travel on Interstate 5 in the Grapevine area, according to the weather service.

A much colder storm is expected to hit the region Friday and Saturday, pushing snow levels as low as 3,000 feet, the weather service said.

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Police officers and FBI agents arrested 22 members of an Oxnard street gang Wednesday on drug-trafficking charges, officials said.

Members of the Colonia Chiques, Ventura County’s largest street gang, were arrested after an eight-month investigation focusing on the gang’s activities. Over the last few weeks, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned nine indictments, charging 12 defendants with distributing methamphetamine, heroin and crack cocaine, officials said.

Eight out of 12 defendants named in the federal indictments were arrested Wednesday morning. Two had been arrested previously and two are fugitives.

In addition to the federal defendants, 14 people were arrested Wednesday morning on state charges to be prosecuted by the Ventura County district attorney’s office.

Formed in the 1970s, the gang has more than 1,000 documented members. The arrests were a result of a collaboration among multiple local and federal authorities.

“This investigation had a direct impact on the reduction of violent crime in our community,” said Oxnard Police Chief Jeri Williams. “By targeting a small percentage of offenders that are responsible for a large number of offenses, we have the ability to solve crimes and prevent new ones before they are committed.”

If convicted, most of the defendants named in the grand jury indictments could get from five to 40 years in federal prison, officials said. Two defendants face potential life sentences because of prior convictions.

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Santa Ana winds are expected to buffet Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday, the National Weather Service said.

Wind gusts around 40 mph are expected across mountain and valley areas of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, the weather service said.

The agency issued wind advisories across the region. By Tuesday evening, significant wind gusts were being reported. The gusts were 45 mph at Lake Palmdale, 63 mph at Whitaker Peak near Santa Clarita and 41 mph in Montecito Hills in Santa Barbara County, according to the weather service.

Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-70s in downtown Los Angeles and other areas.

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Police were looking Friday for a man who punched a female jogger at Camarillo’s popular Pleasant Valley Fields sports complex and ran away.

The incident occurred Wednesday about 7:20 p.m. as the woman jogged along the track near the cul-de-sac at Village Commons Boulevard and next to the Brookshire Condominium complex.

Investigators said a man approached the woman from behind and punched her, which led to an altercation between the two. The altercation lasted only a few seconds, and the suspect ran away.

The jogger received minor injuries as a result of the fight. Camarillo police responded to the scene and canvassed the area.

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A judge has suspended the medical license of a Thousand Oaks doctor accused of molesting female patients and employees.

Dr. Barry Lefkovitch had his license suspended Tuesday by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Edward F. Brodie at the urging of the Medical Board of California, according to court documents.

DOCUMENTS: Read the judge's order

“The mission of the medical board is public protection, and this action reflects the board's ongoing commitment to that mission,” said Linda Whitney, the board’s executive director.

Lefkovitch, 56, was arrested at home Dec. 22 by Thousand Oaks police after a patient, whom investigators have identified only as a woman in her late 20s, alleged that he sexually assaulted her Dec. 13 at his office at Arroyo Oaks Medical Group, according to Det. Jason Robarts.

Lefkovitch was initially charged with three counts of forced sexual penetration, according to court records. Brodie ruled at a Dec. 30 hearing that the doctor could continue practicing but had to be chaperoned by another medical professional when he saw female patients, according to court records.

A Somis man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the shooting death of a man at a Ventura County nursery, sheriff's officials said Wednesday.

Justo Mora Navarro will be booked into Ventura County's pretrial detention center for allegedly shooting  Gilberto Aguilera, 36, of Somis to death Monday at the Mission Nursery on Los Angeles Avenue in Somis.

Aguilera was airlifted to a hospital after the 5 p.m. shooting and was later pronounced dead.

Navarro, who allegedly fled the scene, was located by Ventura County Sheriff's Department detectives within a few hours and was taken into custody without incident in Camarillo.

Detectives said the investigation was ongoing.

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All lanes of Highway 23 in Thousand Oaks were reopened by 10:10 a.m. Tuesday after pool-cleaning acid spilled from a truck, creating a chemical cloud that stopped traffic in both directions, authorities said.

A one-gallon container of muriatic acid fell out of a southbound truck just before 7 a.m. on the southbound lanes between Janss Road and Hillcrest Avenue, authorities said.

The northbound lanes were reopened shortly after 8 a.m., said Miguel Duarte, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Moorpark.

Two southbound lanes were opened around 9:30 a.m. but two others remained closed until 10:10 a.m. as Caltrans finished the cleanup, officials said.

The Ventura County Fire Department and the CHP responded just after 7 a.m. and at one point, connectors to Highway 23 and the 101 Freeway were closed while authorities investigated the accident.

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A Ventura County jury has awarded $49.2 million in a suit involving a freeway accident that killed one man and paralyzed a California Highway Patrol officer.

Jurors on Tuesday decided that Highway Patrol Officer Anthony Pedeferri and his wife, Carrie, should receive $39 million in damages stemming from a Dec. 19, 2007, crash that left Pedeferri quadriplegic.

The officer had pulled over motorist Andres Parra on California 101 north of Ventura and was talking to him through Parra's SUV's window when a man driving a truck slammed into both of them, killing Parra.

Jurors awarded Parra's parents $10.2 million for the loss of their son. 

In a separate criminal case, Jeremy White of Paso Robles, Calif., the driver of the truck, pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and transporting marijuana.

He was sentenced in 2008 to 15 years in prison.

White told Highway Patrol investigators that two dirt bikes in the back of his truck became loose and distracted him. Jurors agreed that the distraction contributed to the crash and ordered Bert's Mega Mall, whose employees strapped the bikes down, to pay roughly one-third of the verdicts.

One of Pedeferri's attorneys, Erik Feingold of Ventura, said the officer was "extremely gratified" by the verdict. Attorneys for Bert's Mega Mall said they plan to appeal.

-- Catherine Saillant