Calpine, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
5,230 ft 1,595 m5,160 ft 1,570 m5,120 ft 1,560 m5,050 ft 1,540 m4,970 ft 1,515 m4,930 ft 1,505 m
Contours every 40 ft, bold every 200 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.
- Area
- Fades everything outside the official CDP boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Calpine sits at about 4,990 ft (1,520 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
4,990 ft 1,520 m
most residents: 4,950–5,080 ft
Lowest
4,930 ft 1,505 m
on the east side
Highest
5,230 ft 1,595 m
on the west edge, below higher ground just outside
Average
5,010 ft 1,530 m
all land inside the CDP boundary
Calpine spans about 300 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 4,990 ft1,520 m |
| Highest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the west edge, below higher ground just outside | 5,230 ft1,595 m |
| Lowest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the east side | 4,930 ft1,505 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Calpine | 4,970 ft1,515 m |
| Airport (O79) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 6.9 mi southeast of the CDP boundary | 4,990 ft1,521 m |
| Average of all land | 5,010 ft1,530 m |
| Nearest peak Haskell Peak, 4.8 mi west of the CDP boundary | 8,090 ft2,465 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
0.6 mi west to east through the town center.
Altitude Effects
What 4,990 ft means day to day, worked out from the typical elevation.
Water boils at
202.7 °F94.8 °C
vs 212 °F at sea level; USDA: food takes longer to cook.
Air pressure
83% of sea level
24.9 inHg (84.3 kPa): each breath holds 17% less air.
Oxygen equivalent
17.4% at sea level
Air is still 21% oxygen, just thinner. Normal at the coast: 20.9%.
Sunburn
+10% more UV
EPA: UV rises about 2% for every 1,000 ft.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Unincorporated community (census-designated place) in Sierra County, California, United States
- Population
- 223 2020 Census
- Land area
- 0.7 sq mi
- Density
- 314 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 39.6663° N, 120.4397° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Cascade-sierra Mountains
- Drains to
- Middle Fork Feather River → Feather River → Sacramento River → Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Sierraville Dearwater (O79) 4,990 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 96124
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Sattley5,020 ft
- Sierraville4,990 ft
- Calpine4,990 ft
- Gold Mountain4,960 ft
- Iron Horse4,940 ft
- Mabie4,910 ft
- Portola4,910 ft
- C-Road4,680 ft
- Whitehawk4,550 ft
- Valley Ranch4,480 ft
- Clio4,410 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California76th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Sierra County5th highest of 11
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Sierra Buttes8,520 ft
- Sardine Peak8,110 ft
- Haskell Peak8,090 ft
- Horton Ridge7,610 ft
- Beckwourth Peak7,264 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the CDP boundary, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census CDP boundary (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) 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).
- Altitude effects: standard-atmosphere formulas applied to the typical elevation; UV from EPA's rule of thumb (about 2% per 1,000 ft).
- 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 (FAA airport elevation, 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.
- Calpine is an unincorporated community; figures cover the census-designated place, a statistical area.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.