The Kettleman City 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
Chance of showers; cooler
Sunny
Showers likely
Showers likely
Mostly sunny
23° on Nov. 17, 1958, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1955. Next is 23° in 2024.
Kettleman City’s center stands about 250 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 180 ft to 860 ft, a difference of 680 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Garza Peak, about 2,640 ft, 14 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Older Quaternary alluvium and marine deposits (coarse-detrital), from the Pleistocene, 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 18×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 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.
Kettleman City has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 99° in July; winter nights fall to about 36° in January. About 8 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Kettleman City normally reaches 68° and falls to 42°. The record high is 80°, in 2025; the record low 32°, in 1972. The most rain on this date, 0.65 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1955 at Kettleman City, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
