Johannesburg, California — live current conditions, hourly and 7-day forecasts, NWS alerts, aviation weather, radar and satellite imagery, soil and crop conditions for Johannesburg, Kern County.
Flight conditions near Johannesburg. Data source: locating…
Soil conditions, frost risk and crop weather for Johannesburg.
Johannesburg rests in a high desert basin, where the earth is a palette of ochre and rust, punctuated by the stoic silhouettes of Joshua trees and the hardy scrub of creosote. It lies 17.4 miles south of Ridgecrest, CA (from Ridgecrest, CA: bearing 173°T), and is situated 19.9 miles south-south-east of China Lake Acres. The air, thin and dry, carries the scent of sun-baked dust and distant sagebrush, a perfume of arid endurance. Mountains, their flanks scarred by ancient washes, rise like sleeping giants on the horizon, their peaks often softened by a haze that lends them an ethereal quality, especially as the sun begins its descent, painting the sky in bruised purples and fiery oranges. This is a land where the silence is profound, broken only by the whisper of the wind or the skittering of unseen creatures in the underbrush. The history of Johannesburg is deeply entwined with the promise of mineral wealth, a lure that drew prospectors and dreamers to this unforgiving landscape at the turn of the 20th century. Though the boom times of gold and silver have long since faded, the spirit of those early days, of grit and hopeful enterprise, still lingers. The local economy, now more oriented towards services and the modest needs of its residents, carries the echo of its mining past in the very soil. Johannesbug has seen periods of quietude and brief resurgence, its character shaped by the resilience required to thrive in such a stark, beautiful environment, a place where the starkness of the land demands a certain hardiness from its inhabitants, fostering a sense of self-reliance and a quiet appreciation for the vast, indifferent beauty that surrounds them.
Live animated radar for Johannesburg 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 | Johannesburg, Kern County, California |
| Coordinates | 35.372741°N, 117.634782°W |
| Timezone | Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles) |
| ZIP Code(s) | 93528 |
| Area Code | 760 |
| Page generated | July 2026 |
| Weather data | Open-Meteo (open-source), NOAA National Weather Service |
This page provides live weather conditions and forecasts for Johannesburg, California, including current conditions, a 24-hour hourly forecast, 7-day outlook, NWS extended text forecast, real-time aviation weather (live METAR and TAF reports from the nearest reporting airport, with a modeled estimate shown when no station is in range), precipitation radar and NOAA GOES-16 satellite imagery. 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 Johannesburg includes coordinates 35.372741°N, 117.634782°W, situated in Kern County. ZIP code 93528. Telephone area code: 760. Timezone: Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles).
Weather data is sourced from the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) and the open-source Open-Meteo API. Aviation data is sourced from aviationweather.gov (NOAA), with a modeled estimate used where no nearby reporting station is available. 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.