Ĭlimate data for Hanford Municipal Airport, California (1981–2010 normals, extremes 1899–present ) Weather forecasts and climatological information for Hanford and the surrounding area are available from its official website. The National Weather Service Forecast Office for the San Joaquin Valley is in Hanford and includes a Doppler weather radar. The average annual rainfall over the ten years from 1997/98 through 2006/07 was 8.97 inches (228 mm). The wetter season occurs from November through March. Today it has a climate typical of the San Joaquin Valley floor with hot, dry summers and cool winters characterized by dense Tule fog. Hanford's land was once a drainage basin for Tulare Lake. The People's Ditch, an irrigation canal dug in the 1870s, traverses Hanford from north to south. The Kings River is about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) north of Hanford. The only natural watercourse is Mussel Slough, remnants of which still exist on the city's western edge. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 16.6 square miles (43 km 2), all land. The city is 249 feet (76 m) above sea level and has a flat terrain. It is situated in the south-central portion of California's San Joaquin Valley, 28 miles (45 km) south-southeast of the city of Fresno and 18 miles (29 km) west of the city of Visalia. Its first mayor was local resident Yamon LeBaron. The need for fire protection led to the town becoming an incorporated city in 1891. On several occasions, major fires destroyed much of the young community's business district. Forty-four of them were Chinese immigrants who resided in what's known today as China Alley. The next month, the town's first census was held counting some 269 residents. This event became famous as the Mussel Slough Tragedy. In May 1880, a dispute over land titles between settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad resulted in a bloody gun battle on a farm 5.6 mi (9.0 km) northwest of Hanford that left seven men dead.

On August 1, California Governor candidates George Clement Perkins and Romualdo Pacheco (and on August 10, O F Thornton and W F White W P C) spoke in Hanford and Lemoore. In May 1878, the Upper Kings River Canal and Irrigation Company filed articles of incorporation. In June 1878, the Workingmen's Party was reported to have a majority vote over the Democrats in the town.

In May 1878, Hanford residents drafted a resolve against the South Pacific Railroad from purchasing land with residing settlers. In 1878, Hanford began running their own newspaper service and wiring called 'The Public Good' which fed into other papers. In 1877, Hanford began to appear in state newspapers, giving details of events in the town's early days. The First United Methodist Church of Hanford, founded in 1877. According to History of Kings County: 'It was but a short step from sheep-camp to village and with the railroad as an attraction the village flourished and became a town within a few historic months.' Many of those working on the tracks were Chinese immigrants. Tracks were laid through a sheep camp in 1877. The earliest known document labeling the settlement as 'Hanford' is an 1876 map of Tulare County which once included the territory of present-day Kings County. Hanford's namesake was James Madison Hanford, an executive for the company. As the settlement grew, Tulare Lake's feeding rivers were diverted for agricultural irrigation, causing it to gradually shrink and, over the 19th and 20th centuries, effectively become extinct.įrom the mid-to-late 1870s, the Southern Pacific Railroad planned to lay tracks towards the developing farmland west of Visalia, spurring a growth in labor and population. The earliest dated grave in the area was that of a young Alice Spangler who was initially buried in the Kings River Cemetery just north of her family's farm in 1860. Since the annexation of California after the Mexican-American War, the locality was settled by Americans and immigrants as farmland, broadly referred to as 'Mussel Slough'. Historic Spanish Colonial Revival style homes in Hanford.

Hanford sentinel