Taft, California Weather
Taft, California — live current conditions, hourly and 7-day forecasts, NWS alerts, radar and satellite imagery, soil and crop conditions for Taft, Kern County.
Full aviation weather for Taft is published on the Taft Kern County Airport (KL17) page, 2 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 Taft 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 Taft: Elk Hills Buttonwillow Airport (KL62) 24 km · New Cuyama Airport (KL88) 31 km · Shafter Airport - Minter Field (KMIT) 47 km · Meadows Field (KBFL) 49 km · Wasco Kern County Airport (KL19) 54 km
Conditions reported at KL17 describe the airfield itself. Weather 2 km away can differ, particularly in terrain or near the coast. For conditions at Taft specifically, see the current conditions and forecast above.
Soil conditions, frost risk and crop weather for Taft.
About Taft, California
Taft rises from the parched, ochre-dusted earth like a mirage of permanence. It lies 29.4 miles west-south-west of Bakersfield, CA (from Bakersfield, CA: bearing 237°T), and is situated 0.8 miles south of Ford City. The landscape around Taft is a study in muted tones, where the sun bleaches the scrub oak and the dry grasses whisper secrets to the persistent wind. Rolling hills, softened by millennia of erosion, give way to a vast, flat expanse under a sky that stretches with an almost arrogant generosity. The air here carries the faint, metallic tang of dust and the distant hum of unseen machinery, a subtle vibration that hints at the lifeblood of this place. Even the shadows, when they finally lengthen in the late afternoon, seem to possess a certain weight, clinging to the low-slung buildings and the sparse, tenacious trees. This is a land shaped by the deep, dark veins of oil that have fueled its existence for generations. Taft’s history is inextricably bound to the boom-and-bust cycles of petroleum extraction, a legacy etched into the very character of its streets and the pragmatic spirit of its residents. The economy, though diversified in recent times, still carries the indelible mark of the oil fields, with remnants of derricks standing like skeletal sentinels against the horizon. The town itself, with its sturdy, unpretentious architecture, reflects a resilience born from weathering the unpredictable tides of industry. You can still feel the echoes of prospectors and roughnecks who once carved out a living here, their stories woven into the fabric of this tenacious Kern County settlement.
Live animated radar for Taft 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 | Taft, Kern County, California |
| Coordinates | 35.142467°N, 119.456508°W |
| Timezone | Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles) |
| ZIP Code(s) | 93268 |
| Area Code | 661 |
| Page generated | September 2026 |
| Weather data | Open-Meteo (open-source), NOAA National Weather Service |
About This Taft, California Weather Page
This page provides live weather conditions and forecasts for Taft, 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 Taft includes coordinates 35.142467°N, 119.456508°W, situated in Kern County. ZIP code 93268. Telephone area code: 661. 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.
