Jefferson County, AL Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,430 ft 435 m1,130 ft 345 m990 ft 300 m690 ft 210 m400 ft 120 m250 ft 80 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- County area
- Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Jefferson County averages about 580 ft (180 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 250 ft on the west side to 1,430 ft on Butler Mountain.
Average elevation
580 ft 180 m
all land inside the county
Highest
1,430 ft 435 m
on Butler Mountain
Lowest
250 ft 75 m
on the west side
Jefferson County spans about 1,180 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Average of all land | 580 ft180 m |
| Highest point Inside the county, on Butler Mountain | 1,430 ft435 m |
| Lowest point Inside the county, on the west side | 250 ft75 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
42 mi west to east through Birmingham.
Topographic Map
- Location
- County in Alabama, United States
- Population
- 664,744 2024 est.
- Land area
- 1,111.6 sq mi + 12.5 sq mi water
- Density
- 598 per sq mi
- Time zone
- Central UTC−6 / −5
- Landform regions
- Appalachian Plateaus 61%, Valley and Ridge 39%
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average
- Blount County790 ft
- St. Clair County690 ft
- Jefferson County580 ft
- Shelby County560 ft
- Walker County470 ft
- Bibb County410 ft
- Tuscaloosa County360 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- Counties in Alabama27th highest of 67
- Counties in the United States2,232nd highest of 3,151
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Butler Mountain1,430 ft
- Foster Mountain, Jefferson County1,390 ft
- Meridian Mountain1,360 ft
- Village Mountain1,350 ft
- Praytor Mountain1,340 ft
All 48 towns in Jefferson County by typical elevation
- Grayson Valley970 ft
- Clay930 ft
- Argo partly870 ft
- Trussville830 ft
- Irondale820 ft
- Center Point820 ft
- Pinson760 ft
- Mountain Brook750 ft
- Homewood710 ft
- Leeds670 ft
- Vestavia Hills660 ft
- Birmingham650 ft
- Pleasant Grove640 ft
- Forestdale630 ft
- Sylvan Springs620 ft
- Maytown620 ft
- Gardendale620 ft
- Tarrant610 ft
- Hoover610 ft
- Fairfield590 ft
- Fultondale590 ft
- Adamsville590 ft
- McDonald Chapel590 ft
- Minor580 ft
- Mount Olive570 ft
- Edgewater560 ft
- Graysville560 ft
- McCalla550 ft
- Mulga550 ft
- County Line partly540 ft
- Midfield540 ft
- Concord540 ft
- Lipscomb540 ft
- Lake View partly530 ft
- Hueytown530 ft
- Bessemer520 ft
- Rock Creek520 ft
- Brighton510 ft
- Trafford490 ft
- Warrior490 ft
- Helena partly480 ft
- Sumiton partly470 ft
- Kimberly470 ft
- North Johns460 ft
- Brookside440 ft
- Morris430 ft
- West Jefferson400 ft
- Cardiff370 ft
How we measure
- Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
- Highest ground: the single highest 3DEP cell, 1,440 ft at 33.7201° N, 86.6012° W, has no federal (GNIS) summit name within 980 ft (300 m), so the high point shown is the highest of the 25 highest cells with a GNIS summit within 1,640 ft (500 m).
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, 83 ft at 33.5865° N, 86.7604° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
- Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.