The Cuyama plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Showers likely; cooler
Mostly sunny
Showers likely
Showers likely
Partly cloudy
19° on Nov. 13, 2000, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1974. Next is 20° in 1975.
Cuyama’s center stands about 2,290 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,140 ft to 2,630 ft, a difference of 490 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Samon Peak, about 6,150 ft, 14 miles south.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Quaternary alluvium and marine deposits (coarse-detrital), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Oligocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 34 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Oligocene to Pleistocene, less than 34 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Cuyama reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of the Cuyama and the Santa Maria: about 100 river miles.
80 miles of the trip are on the Cuyama.
Often dry. About 70% of the way is mapped as streams that run only after rain or snowmelt; the water makes the whole trip in floods.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Cuyama; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cuyama has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 95° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in December. About 7 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Cuyama normally reaches 68° and falls to 36°. The record high is 88°, in 1995; the record low 26°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 0.18 in, fell in 2025.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1974 at New Cuyama Fire Station, 4 miles west-northwest, 130 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
