I been there.
More than a few times.

Why is Bakersfield 384 CPM ?

Nothing there but hot, crops, and oilfields.

Is there something I am missing?

Thank you
rc

I live here and am looking for answers as well. I have no experience with this, someone posted a chart from this site on Facebook that said our radiation levels were past the point of evacuation! I'm a little frightened now, I tried to check the EPA's site, but I don't know what I'm doing really, it's telling me that yesterday our CPM was at 549! Can someone explain what this means?

This information that says the radiation is higher than the NORM for your area is the only thing Netc says. When people says any other mis-information, ask where they got their information. Netc has never said that the radiation level is dangerous or you should move. That is up to you where to live.

The best thing I can suggest is that you get a station of your own so you know what your normal readings are. Any change from your own stations monitored normal would then be a concern. When my station goes outside my areas normal range, my family stays inside until it passes.

I would suggest a setup like mine that has been outside for almost two years now.

https://www.netc.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=203

The FREE software download can be found here: http://www.netc.com/software/

Thanks, your thread was really informative. I feel like I know a little more about how this all works. I see that weather can have an impact on the radiation levels, and we did have an abnormal amount of fog/haziness last week. Do the two things always correlate?

Yes, all weather storms can easily carry higher radiation levels but not all are as high as others. If you look at what happened on the U.S.S. Ronald Regan while it was just off the coast of Japan when the Fukushima disaster started March, 11 2011 they had radioactive snow fall. Remember to that water shields radiation even though higher readings can be seen during rain or snow, when snow is melting or as rain dries up and goes in to the air the higher levels are likely seen then too.

As I have learned different things about radiation over the years, the stuff I found to be really an eye opener I have shared in the section on this forum that I called NUCLEAR 101. There is also a newbie thread I posted in there that will help jump start people, found here: https://www.netc.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=364