Bakersfield California

Bakersfield is a city on the Kern River, north of Los Angeles. Displays at the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History focus on geology and paleontology. On the city’s northeastern edge, the California Living Museum explores the state’s flora and fauna and has a reptile house and a touch tank. Northeast, trails wind through the mountains of the Kern River Ranger District, part of Sequoia National Forest.

Bakersfield lies near the southern "horseshoe" end of the San Joaquin Valley, with the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada just to the east. The city limits extend to the Sequoia National Forest, at the foot of the Greenhorn Mountain Range, and at the entrance to the Kern Canyon.[39] To the south, the Tehachapi Mountains, rising more than a vertical mile, feature the historic Tejon Ranch. To the west is the Temblor Range, behind which is the Carrizo Plain National Monument and the San Andreas Fault. The Temblor Range is about 35 mi (56 km) from Bakersfield across the valley floor.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 143.6 sq mi (372 km2), of which 142.2 sq mi (368 km2) is land (98.99%) and 1.4 sq mi (3.6 km2) are covered by water (1.01%).

At the 2000 census, the city had a total area of 114.4 sq mi (296 km2), of which 113.1 sq mi (293 km2) were land (98.86%) and 1.3 sq mi (3.4 km2) was water-covered (1.14%).

Bakersfield lies around 110 mi (180 km) north of Los Angeles (about a 2-hour drive on I-5 and State Route 99) and about 275 mi (443 km) southeast of the state capital, Sacramento (about a 4-hour drive on State Route 99).

Hart Memorial Park is located in northeast Bakersfield along Alfred Harrell Highway.

Communities and neighborhoods

See also: List of neighborhoods in Bakersfield

Bakersfield has historically referred to its regions by directional names. They include: North Bakersfield, Northeast, Southeast, South Bakersfield, Southwest, and Northwest. East Bakersfield generally refers to the former town of Sumner (later renamed East Bakersfield). As a result, the Northeast wraps around East Bakersfield.[

Climate

Dense tule fog in Bakersfield, California: Visibility in this photo is less than 500 feet (150 m).

Bakersfield has a hot arid climate (Köppen BWh),[42] with very hot, dry summers, and winters that consist of mild days with chilly/cold nights. Rainfall is low in the city, averaging only 6.36 inches (161.5 mm) annually, with most of it falling in the winter. Bakersfield averages about 191 clear days a year. Bakersfield's climate makes the region suitable for growing crops ranging from carrots to citrus and almonds.

Bakersfield summers are very hot with extended stretches of hot weather and 112 days per year with high temperatures of 90 °F (32.2 °C)+ (on average between April 18 and October 13); in addition, there are 36 days with highs of 100 °F (37.8 °C)+ (on average between June 2 and September 19) and 0.9 days with highs of 110 °F (43.3 °C)+. The frequency of 110 °F (43.3 °C) readings can significantly vary each year, with the record being 17 days in 1931. The most recent year to have more than 5 days of 110 °F (43.3 °C)+ temperature readings was 2017, with 7 days reaching or exceeding 110 °F (43.3 °C). Temperatures can be highly variable throughout the spring, summer, and fall months every year, with triple-digit temperature readings in May, and on rare occasions April, and October in addition to occasional high temperatures below 80 °F (26.7 °C) in June and September not being uncommon. The warmest month on record was July 2021, with an average temperature of 90 °F (32.2 °C). Except for occasional monsoons which may bring light rain, typically no rain or almost no rain will fall from May to September.

Winters feature mild daytime temperatures and chilly/cold nights. Frost and/or dense fog usually occurs in winter with accompanying low visibility, causing many schools to have fog delays. Winters will usually produce a very dense layer of fog from time to time. Due to years of prolonged drought and rapid development of many new neighborhoods around Bakersfield, the density of the fog and the number of "fog days" has been steadily decreasing, while areas outside the city still experience thick fog. The official time frame for tule fog to form is about 5 months long – various days from November 1 to March 31. Most noticeable in summer and winter, the urban heat island phenomenon can be observed throughout various neighborhoods in Bakersfield. Areas closer to downtown and along the 99 freeway corridor can experience warmer temperatures at night than neighborhoods on the edge of the city limits and rural Kern County areas, with temperature differences up to 7 °F (4 °C) between these areas at any given time.[45] On average, 10 mornings have freezing lows (on average between December 14 and January 24) annually, and the coldest night of the year typically bottoms out below 30 °F or −1.1 °C. On January 2, 2012, Bakersfield reached a record high of 82 °F (27.8 °C) for that year's winter.[citation needed]

Spring and fall months typically feature mild to warm daytime high temperatures with cool nighttime low temperatures, but temperatures and precipitation can vary significantly depending on the year. More than 50 percent of Bakersfield's annual precipitation falls between the months of January and March, with the remainder falling during late fall and early winter.

Snow is rare on the valley floor although frost may occur.[46] The last snow fell on January 25, 1999, when the city received up to 6 inches (15 cm),[47] with 3 inches (7.6 cm) at the airport.[44] The record maximum temperature was 118 °F (47.8 °C) on July 28, 1908, and the record minimum temperature was 12 °F (−11.1 °C) on January 3, 1908.[48][44] The most rainfall in one month was 5.82 inches (147.8 mm) in December 2010,[49] and the maximum 24-hour rainfall was 2.29 inches (58.2 mm) on February 9, 1978. The wettest "rain year" was from July 1997 to June 1998 with 14.73 inches (374.1 mm) and the driest was from July 1933 to June 1934 with 2.26 inches (57.4 mm).