About Porterville

Porterville, also known as Band Town USA, is a city in the San Joaquin Valley, in Tulare County, California, United States. Porterville's population was 55,023 at the 2012 census. The city's population grew dramatically as the city annexed many properties and unincorporated areas in and around Porterville. Not included in the city's population is East Porterville. The Census found another 7,331 more residents living in East Porterville, giving the Porterville Urban Area a total of 62,354 residents. Porterville is considered part of the Census Bureau's designation of the Visalia-Porterville metropolitan statistical area. Porterville serves as a gateway to a vast mountain wonderland and recreational area of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Porterville is located on the Tule River at the base of the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada and eastern most section of California's Central Valley. In the foothills above Porterville is the man-made Lake Success.

Porterville is subject to earthquakes and aftershocks due to its proximity to the Pacific Ring of Fire. The geologic instability produces numerous fault lines both above and below ground, which altogether cause approximately 10,000 earthquakes every year. One of the major fault lines is the San Andreas Fault. A few major earthquakes have hit the Porterville area like the Kern County Earthquake of 1952 and the Bakersfield Earthquake of 1952 causing serious aftershocks and earthquakes in the area. All but a few quakes are of low intensity and are not felt. Most of the city are also vulnerable to floods. The San Joaquin Valley and metropolitan areas are also at risk from blind thrust earthquakes.

Owing to geography, heavy reliance on automobiles, and agriculture, Porterville suffers from air pollution in the form of smog. The Porterville area and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley are susceptible to atmospheric inversion, which holds in the exhausts from road vehicles, airplanes, locomotives, agriculture, manufacturing, and other sources. Unlike other cities that rely on rain to clear smog, Porterville gets only 13.00 inches (330.20 mm) of rain each year: pollution accumulates over many consecutive days. Issues of air quality in Porterville and other major cities led to the passage of early national environmental legislation, including the Clean Air Act. More recently, the state of California has led the nation in working to limit pollution by mandating low emission vehicles. Smog levels are only high during summers because it is dry and warm. In the winter, storms help to clear the smog and it is not as much of a problem. Smog should continue to drop in the coming years due to aggressive steps to reduce it, electric and hybrid cars, and other pollution-reducing measures taken.