Modesto, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
130 ft 40 m100 ft 30 m89 ft 27 m65 ft 20 m40 ft 12 m28 ft 9 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.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Modesto sits at about 92 ft (28 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
92 ft 28 m
most residents: 79–110 ft
Lowest
28 ft 9 m
on the southwest side
Highest
130 ft 40 m
on the northeast side
Average
86 ft 26 m
all land inside city limits
Modesto spans about 102 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 | 92 ft28 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the northeast side | 130 ft40 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 28 ft9 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Modesto | 89 ft27 m |
| Airport (MOD) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways | 99 ft30 m |
| Average of all land | 86 ft26 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
6.0 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Stanislaus County, California, United States
- Population
- 220,592 2024 est.
- Land area
- 43.7 sq mi + 1.8 sq mi water
- Density
- 5,045 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 37.6391° N, 120.9969° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- San Joaquin River → Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Modesto City-County-Harry Sham Field (MOD) 99 ft
- ZIP codes 8
- 95313 95350 95351 95354 95355 95356 95357 95358
⤓ 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
- Empire120 ft
- Airport95 ft
- Ceres94 ft
- Modesto92 ft
- Parklawn90 ft
- Bystrom90 ft
- Bret Harte84 ft
- West Modesto78 ft
- Rouse78 ft
- Cowan76 ft
- Riverdale Park62 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California1,354th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Stanislaus County22nd highest of 33
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Copernicus Peak4,360 ft
- Eylar Mountain4,087 ft
- Discovery Peak3,830 ft
- Mount Stakes3,810 ft
- Bear Mountain, Calaveras County2,890 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, 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 city limits (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).
- 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.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.