Cottonwood, California Weather
Cottonwood, California — live current conditions, hourly and 7-day forecasts, NWS alerts, radar and satellite imagery for Cottonwood, Kern County.
Full aviation weather for Cottonwood is published on the Meadows Field (KBFL) page, 12 km away. It carries the current METAR decoded into plain language — surface wind, visibility, cloud layers and ceiling, temperature and dewpoint, and altimeter setting — alongside the raw observation as transmitted. 6 airfields within reach of Cottonwood have their own pages, listed below.
The Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) is shown across its full validity period, with each change group broken out so you can see when conditions are expected to shift. Flight category is derived automatically — VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR — from reported ceiling and visibility, with runway details and field elevation alongside. Observations update roughly hourly and forecasts several times a day.
Other airports near Cottonwood: Shafter Airport - Minter Field (KMIT) 26 km · Poso Kern County Airport (KL73) 31 km · Elk Hills Buttonwillow Airport (KL62) 45 km · Wasco Kern County Airport (KL19) 45 km · Taft Kern County Airport (KL17) 47 km
Conditions reported at KBFL describe the airfield itself. Weather 12 km away can differ, particularly in terrain or near the coast. For conditions at Cottonwood specifically, see the current conditions and forecast above.
About Cottonwood, California
Cottonwood rests in a broad, sun-baked expanse where the land begins its slow, deliberate rise toward the Sierra Nevada foothills. It lies 2.6 miles south-east of Bakersfield, CA (from Bakersfield, CA: bearing 134°T), and is situated 5.4 miles south-south-east of Oildale. The terrain here is a study in ochre and sage, a palette of muted earth tones under a vast, cerulean sky that often feels impossibly deep. Sparse stands of cottonwood trees, their pale bark catching the light, mark the infrequent presence of water, their leaves a whisper against the dry air. The air itself carries a fine dust, a constant reminder of the arid embrace of the Central Valley, and the quality of light at late afternoon, when the sun dips low, casts long, attenuated shadows that seem to stretch the very fabric of the landscape. The history of Cottonwood is deeply intertwined with the water that has, for so long, shaped its existence. Once a vital stop along the historic El Camino Viejo, its fortunes have ebbed and flowed with the agricultural cycles of the surrounding region. The economy here still clings to the land, with fields of alfalfa and orchards of stone fruit stretching across the flatlands, their verdant rows a stark contrast to the dry hills. A quiet resilience pervades Cottonwood, a sense of enduring the heat and the dust, a steady hum of life that feels both ancient and present, a place where the past is not so much forgotten as it is simply absorbed into the enduring character of the earth.
Live animated radar for Cottonwood and surroundings — RainViewer.
NOAA GOES-16 GEOCOLOR — live animated loop updated every 10 minutes. Shows cloud cover, storm systems and weather patterns across the continental US.
Source: NOAA/NESDIS GOES-East · Public domain · Auto-updates on page reload
| Location | Cottonwood, Kern County, California |
| Coordinates | 35.346702°N, 118.985366°W |
| Timezone | Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles) |
| ZIP Code(s) | 93307, 95694, 96022 |
| Area Code | 530 |
| Page generated | September 2026 |
| Weather data | Open-Meteo (open-source), NOAA National Weather Service |
About This Cottonwood, California Weather Page
This page provides live weather conditions and forecasts for Cottonwood, California, including current conditions, a 24-hour hourly forecast, 7-day outlook, NWS extended text forecast, precipitation radar and NOAA GOES-16 satellite imagery. Aviation weather — live METAR observations and TAF forecasts — is published separately on the pages for the nearest reporting airports, linked from the aviation section above. Additional sections may include tide predictions, wave height, wave direction and sea-surface temperature, a barometric pressure trend, and a solunar-based fishing forecast with a fishing-conditions rating for coastal localities, and soil temperature, crop weather and live USGS river gauge data for agricultural areas near a monitored waterway. All data updates automatically on every page visit.
Location data for Cottonwood includes coordinates 35.346702°N, 118.985366°W, situated in Kern County. ZIP code 93307, 95694, 96022. Telephone area code: 530. Timezone: Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles).
Weather data is sourced from the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) and the open-source Open-Meteo API. River and stream data is sourced from the USGS National Water Information System. Tide predictions are sourced from NOAA CO-OPS; marine and solunar data are modeled from Open-Meteo and public sunrise/moon calculations and should be treated as a general guide alongside on-the-water conditions. Radar is provided by RainViewer. Satellite imagery is sourced from NOAA/NESDIS GOES-East and is public domain.
