California Climate Zone 13
Climate zone 13 covers the southern San Joaquin Valley, from Madera down to the Tehachapi foothills. The Energy Commission assigns 194 of California's ZIP codes to it, making it the 5th largest of the sixteen.
Title 24 Reports from $199 100% Online
Where zone 13 is
The Energy Commission assigns 194 ZIP codes to zone 13 — about 7.2 per cent of every ZIP code it lists, and the 5th largest of the sixteen. Places in it include Fresno, Bakersfield, Visalia, Tulare, Hanford, Madera and Delano.
The zone is geographically contiguous — it occupies one continuous block of the state rather than being scattered. The ZIP codes fall in the prefix ranges 932xx, 933xx, 936xx, 937xx, 938xx.
What drives compliance in zone 13
The hottest of the valley assignments, and decisively cooling-driven. Glazing area and orientation, duct location and cooling equipment efficiency carry the calculation, and a west-facing wall of glass that clears comfortably on the coast will usually not clear here without something else compensating for it.
Where zone 13 ends
Zone 13 runs the length of the southern San Joaquin Valley and ends at a mountain crossing rather than a boundary line: Bakersfield sits in it while Tehachapi, up the pass, sits in the mountain zone. To the east the county drops into desert, a third assignment again.
Boundaries follow conditions rather than administrative lines, so the assignment is resolved from the project ZIP code rather than inferred from the city on the drawings.
Cities we cover in zone 13
2 of our city guides cover places in this zone.