Taft Heights, California Weather
Taft Heights, California — live current conditions, hourly and 7-day forecasts, NWS alerts, radar and satellite imagery for Taft Heights, Kern County.
Full aviation weather for Taft Heights is published on the Taft Kern County Airport (KL17) page, 3 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 Heights 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 Heights: Elk Hills Buttonwillow Airport (KL62) 24 km · New Cuyama Airport (KL88) 29 km · Shafter Airport - Minter Field (KMIT) 49 km · Meadows Field (KBFL) 50 km · Wasco Kern County Airport (KL19) 55 km
Conditions reported at KL17 describe the airfield itself. Weather 3 km away can differ, particularly in terrain or near the coast. For conditions at Taft Heights specifically, see the current conditions and forecast above.
About Taft Heights, California
Taft Heights rises from the rolling, tawny hills of Kern County, a place where the sun bleeds across the sky in hues of apricot and rose as evening approaches. It lies 30.5 miles west-south-west of Bakersfield, CA (from Bakersfield, CA: bearing 237°T), and is situated 1.1 miles west-south-west of Taft. The land here is a study in muted earth tones, a vast expanse of scrub oak and brittle grasses that whisper under the persistent wind. Distant mesas, softened by the haze of afternoon heat, stand like ancient sentinels guarding the horizon. The air itself carries a dry, clean scent, a blend of dust and the faint, resinous perfume of sun-baked chaparral, and the quietude is profound, broken only by the occasional hawk's cry or the distant hum of unseen machinery. This landscape, seemingly so stark, holds the deep imprint of its past. Taft Heights, like much of this region, owes its character to the relentless pursuit of oil, a history etched into the very bones of the community. The economy here has long been tied to the black gold drawn from beneath the earth, a legacy that shaped its growth and continues to inform its present. Though the boom times may have ebbed, a resilient spirit persists, a quiet determination found in the weathered facades of its buildings and the steady rhythm of daily life. The memory of prospectors and roughnecks lingers, a subtle undercurrent beneath the sun-drenched stillness of Taft Heights.
Live animated radar for Taft Heights 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 Heights, Kern County, California |
| Coordinates | 35.13469°N, 119.47262°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 Heights, California Weather Page
This page provides live weather conditions and forecasts for Taft Heights, 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 Heights includes coordinates 35.134690°N, 119.472620°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.
