The McFarland 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
Sunny
Showers likely
Showers likely
Mostly sunny
88° on Nov. 11, 1921, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1901. Next is 88° in 2016.
McFarland’s center stands about 350 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 310 ft to 440 ft, a difference of 130 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Poso, about 1,200 ft, 14 miles east-southeast.
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 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 25×. 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 13 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 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.
McFarland has a hot desert climate. Summer afternoons average 100° in July; winter nights fall to about 38° in December. About 7 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 McFarland normally reaches 69° and falls to 44°. The record high is 86°, in 1941; the record low 24°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 0.59 in, fell in 1928.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1901 at Wasco, 9 miles southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
