Rainbow, California Weather
Rainbow, California — live current conditions, hourly and 7-day forecasts, NWS alerts, radar and satellite imagery, soil and crop conditions for Rainbow, Placer County.
Full aviation weather for Rainbow is published on the Blue Canyon Nyack Airport (KBLU) page, 18 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. 4 airfields within reach of Rainbow 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 Rainbow: Truckee Tahoe Airport (KTRK) 32 km · Sierraville Dearwater Airport (KO79) 33 km · Nevada County Airport (KGOO) 44 km
Conditions reported at KBLU describe the airfield itself. Weather 18 km away can differ, particularly in terrain or near the coast. For conditions at Rainbow specifically, see the current conditions and forecast above.
Soil conditions, frost risk and crop weather for Rainbow.
About Rainbow, California
Rainbow lives where the Sierra Nevada’s forested slopes begin their gentle descent, a place where granite outcrops punctuate the deep green of pine and fir. It lies 40.1 miles west-south-west of Reno, NV (from Reno, NV: bearing 248°T), and is situated 17.4 miles west of Truckee. The air here, especially in the early mornings, carries a crisp, clean scent of resin and damp earth, a balm to the lungs. Sunlight, when it filters through the dense canopy, paints shifting mosaics on the forest floor, a fleeting artistry that changes with every breeze. The terrain itself speaks of ancient forces, with streams like the Bear and Shirttail Creeks, their waters a clear, cold murmur, tracing paths worn smooth by millennia of flow. These waterways are the arteries of Rainbow, their banks often adorned with ferns and mosses, reflecting the sky in their placid stretches. The history of Rainbow is inextricably linked to the gold that once shimmered in its streams, a legacy of the California Gold Rush that drew prospectors and settlers to these wild hills. Though the feverish rush has long since subsided, the spirit of resilience and enterprise remains, now finding expression in a local economy that leans towards timber, small-scale agriculture, and the quiet hospitality offered to those who seek respite in its natural beauty. The distinctive character of Rainbow is not one of grand pronouncements but of quiet persistence; it is a place where the rhythm of the seasons dictates the pace of life, and where the enduring presence of the mountains offers a constant, grounding perspective.
Live animated radar for Rainbow 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 | Rainbow, Placer County, California |
| Coordinates | 39.310181°N, 120.50854°W |
| Timezone | Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles) |
| ZIP Code(s) | 95728, 92028 |
| Area Code | 530, 714 |
| Page generated | September 2026 |
| Weather data | Open-Meteo (open-source), NOAA National Weather Service |
About This Rainbow, California Weather Page
This page provides live weather conditions and forecasts for Rainbow, 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 Rainbow includes coordinates 39.310181°N, 120.508540°W, situated in Placer County. ZIP code 95728, 92028. Telephone area code: 530, 714. 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.
