Kern River Powerhouse, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Explore NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 climate normals → and a clearly labeled PlainClimate comfort calculation
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Kern River Powerhouse's primary NOAA station, KERN RIVER PH 3.
The climate verdict for Kern River Powerhouse
Dryness leads the climate profile for Kern River Powerhouse, California, with 11.8 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 61°F. It scores 80/100 for climate comfort (excellent), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 76% of them.
- 61°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 80/100
- comfort score, above 76% of station-mapped location scores
- 11.8"
- annual precipitation
- 218 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Kern River Powerhouse: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00044523 · Kern River Powerhouse, CA 61°F mean · 11.8" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-MID · COMF-TOP · LOAD-MIX · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 61°F
- RANK-UPPER #5,352
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Carrollton
- PRCP-ARID 11.8"
- SWING-MID 35°F
- COMF-TOP 80/100
- LOAD-MIX H/C balanced
- STN-1 USC00044523
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Carrollton, GA (+ 0 °F mean)
Instrument codes from this station's NOAA 1991–2020 normals, mean temperature, corpus warmth rank, photo-finish peer station, precipitation band, seasonal swing, comfort composite, degree-day load, and field book, not a livability rating.
Mean-temperature neighbourhood
Nationwide NOAA normal poles and nearest peers, not a reprint of every CA station list.
- Kern River Powe… (this station) 61°F
- Hot Lordsburg, NM 61°F
- Near Carrollton, GA 61°F
- Near Coronado Nmem, AZ 61°F
- Near Hartwell, GA 61°F
Climate Living Index · Kern River Powerhouse
Kern River Powerhouse: 53/100 · grade D
Kern River Powerhouse publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Kern River Powerhouse, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 80/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Annual temperature balance | 61.3°F · 6.2° from 67.5°F | 81/100 · B |
| Frost-free season | 218 days/year | 76/100 · B |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 162 calendar days | 38/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 11.8 in · 23.2 from 35 in | 18/100 · F |
Kern River Powerhouse · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Kern River Powerhouse's normals sit in a dry climate class: BSk
Precipitation is low relative to temperature but above true desert thresholds: cold semi-arid steppe (BSk). Class BSk is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically cold semi-arid steppe.
- Köppen code
- BSk
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 80.6°F
- Coldest month
- 45.8°F
Source: official public datasets monthly normals (1991–2020) at the city’s primary station. This is a station classification, not a mapped regional consensus.
National standing · balanced station
Where Kern River Powerhouse sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Kern River Powerhouse's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 22% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Kern River Powerhouse sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 90%
- Kern River Powerhouse's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 83%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Kern River Powerhouse is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Kern River Powerhouse compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Kern River Powerhouse's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
80 Top 24% score exceeds 76% of 6,189 station-mapped location scores
- 0–10: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 10–20: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 20–30: 96 station-mapped locations (2%). Below this entry.
- 30–40: 280 station-mapped locations (5%). Below this entry.
- 40–50: 1,113 station-mapped locations (18%). Below this entry.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Below this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). Below this entry.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). Below this entry.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). This entry sits in this band.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61°F (16°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 2.3" | 18.3 | 0.0 |
| February | 63°F (17°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 2.4" | 11.8 | 0.0 |
| March | 67°F (19°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 1.7" | 7.5 | 0.1 |
| April | 72°F (22°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 0.7" | 2.2 | 0.7 |
| May | 80°F (27°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.4" | 0.1 | 6.5 |
| June | 91°F (33°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 18.0 |
| July | 99°F (37°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 81°F (27°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 29.4 |
| August | 98°F (37°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 80°F (27°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 28.9 |
| September | 92°F (33°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 74°F (23°C) | 0.2" | 0.0 | 20.9 |
| October | 81°F (27°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.6" | 0.3 | 6.5 |
| November | 69°F (20°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 1.4" | 10.1 | 0.0 |
| December | 60°F (16°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 1.9" | 18.3 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Kern River Powerhouse works both ends of the calendar. Normal highs climb to 100°F by July 23 and hold at or above 90°F on 101 dates, then normal lows drop to freezing or below on 61 dates, bottoming at 31°F around December 17.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from June 14 through September 22, covering 101 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs April 3 to November 11.
This counts calendar dates whose 1991–2020 normal high reaches 90°F. It is a smaller number than the 90°F+ day counts in the monthly table above, which measure how often the threshold was actually crossed in a typical year. A date can average 88°F and still exceed 90°F in half of all years.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into January 31, then returns to freezing around December 2, covering 61 dates in all.
Derived from the normal daily minimum. This is a different measure from the 50%-probability frost dates shown elsewhere on this page, which come from NOAA’s frost product.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 19, when 27% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is June 30 at 2%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 43 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 1 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 36°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Kern River Powerhouse.
Where Kern River Powerhouse Stands Nationally
Summers here run among the most heat-heavy normals calendars in the country: on about 101 days a year the normal daily high itself reaches 90°F — a count fewer than one station in ten exceeds.
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 12 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Kern River Powerhouse earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall
7.2 days with precipitation
7.5 days with precipitation
6.4 days with precipitation
4.3 days with precipitation
2.4 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
2.5 days with precipitation
2.6 days with precipitation
6.1 days with precipitation
Kern River Powerhouse's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 56% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 3%. That is the cool-season-dominant pattern of the West Coast and the higher inland West, where storm tracks swing south in winter and summer turns dry; the thermometer meanwhile shows a 34.8°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 2.4"
- Driest month
- August, 0.1"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, December (56% of the year)
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A cool-season label means the December-February share reaches 35%. Where snow falls, the monthly figures above report liquid-equivalent precipitation, so a wet winter month is not necessarily a rainy one.
How Kern River Powerhouse's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 43 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 11.8" between them, or roughly 0.28 inches on a typical wet day. That sits in the middle band: neither the many-light-days pattern of the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes, nor the few-heavy-events pattern of the Gulf and the desert Southwest.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year and say nothing about the heaviest single storm on record.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
November 11
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
April 7
50% probability date
Growing Season
218 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,986
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,654
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Kern River Powerhouse on two NOAA annual-normal axes (mean temperature and annual precipitation). Chip rows use distinct link sets.
Closest by average temperature
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual mean temperature (61°F here).
- Carrollton, GA 61°F · 0.0°F off
- Hartwell, GA 61°F · 0.0°F off
- Lordsburg, NM 61°F · 0.0°F off
- Malvern, AR 61°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (11.8" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Boulder, UT 11.8" · 0.0" off
- Pinedale, WY 11.9" · 0.0" off
- Ovando, MT 11.8" · 0.0" off
- Rudyard, MT 11.9" · 0.1" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Kern River Powerhouse's limited precipitation lands
mixed demand · dry · mid swing
Local precipitation is sparse in this otherwise mixed profile. The station reports 11.8 inches annually, within PlainClimate's dry band. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. The monthly distribution matters because the total alone does not reveal the timing.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Kern River Powerhouse's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 34.8°F. The annual average is 61°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Heating and cooling both register in Kern River Powerhouse's normal, at 2,986 and 1,654 degree days respectively. Neither total exceeds the other by more than two to one, so the record is better read as a mixed-demand calendar than as heating-led or cooling-led.
A roughly 218-day frost-free season sits inside this mixed heating-and-cooling profile. Start and end dates matter because both sides of the thermostat register during a normal year.
Kern River Powerhouse wettest normal
February
February concentrates the scarce annual total (11.8 inches).
Kern River Powerhouse driest normal
August
August is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Kern River Powerhouse's climate
How dry is Kern River Powerhouse? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Kern River Powerhouse get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Kern River Powerhouse? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Kern River Powerhouse's primary station: KERN RIVER PH 3 (USC00044523). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The conservative exact name-and-state crosswalk finds no Census place match, so PlainClimate treats this as a station-mapped location and does not claim it is a municipality. No exact Gazetteer row for Kern River Powerhouse; facility counts that depend on place identity are therefore an upper bound, not a municipal census.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Kern River Powerhouse comes from its primary NOAA station record. No figure on this page is typed in by an editor - each value is rendered from NOAA 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 1991–2020 normals.