Palmdale, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
5,220 ft 1,590 m4,520 ft 1,380 m4,180 ft 1,275 m3,480 ft 1,060 m2,790 ft 850 m2,440 ft 745 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 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
Palmdale sits at about 2,680 ft (815 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
2,680 ft 815 m
most residents: 2,620–2,800 ft
Lowest
2,440 ft 745 m
on the northeast side
Highest
5,220 ft 1,590 m
on the west side
Average
2,900 ft 885 m
all land inside city limits
Palmdale spans about 2,780 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 | 2,680 ft815 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the west side | 5,220 ft1,590 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the northeast side | 2,440 ft745 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Palmdale | 2,660 ft810 m |
| Airport (PMD) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways | 2,543 ft775 m |
| Average of all land | 2,900 ft885 m |
| Nearest peak Pacifico Mountain, 8.9 mi south of the city limits (NGS survey) | 7,137 ft2,175 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
17 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Los Angeles County, California, United States
- Population
- 162,536 2024 est.
- Land area
- 106.1 sq mi + 0.2 sq mi water
- Density
- 1,532 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 34.5794° N, 118.1165° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Basin and Range
- Drains to
- Rosamond Lake basin (does not reach the sea)
- Airport
- Palmdale Usaf Plant 42 (PMD) 2,543 ft
- ZIP codes 6
- 93535 93543 93550 93551 93552 93591
⤓ 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
- Leona Valley3,450 ft
- Elizabeth Lake3,380 ft
- Acton3,240 ft
- Littlerock2,880 ft
- Sun Village2,730 ft
- Desert View Highlands2,720 ft
- Agua Dulce2,720 ft
- Palmdale2,680 ft
- Lake Los Angeles2,660 ft
- Quartz Hill2,470 ft
- Lancaster2,380 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California300th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Los Angeles County10th highest of 142
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Mount Baden-Powell9,390 ft
- Mount Williamson, Los Angeles County8,240 ft
- Waterman Mountain8,030 ft
- Pacifico Mountain7,137 ft
- Mount Gleason6,530 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.