Sonora, CA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
2,270 ft 690 m2,090 ft 640 m2,010 ft 610 m1,840 ft 560 m1,660 ft 505 m1,580 ft 480 m
Contours every 100 ft, bold every 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
Sonora sits at about 1,940 ft (590 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
1,940 ft 590 m
most residents: 1,820–2,100 ft
Lowest
1,580 ft 480 m
on the southwest side
Highest
2,270 ft 690 m
at the foot of the Red Hills
Average
1,920 ft 585 m
all land inside city limits
Sonora spans about 690 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 | 1,940 ft590 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, at the foot of the Red Hills | 2,270 ft690 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 1,580 ft480 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Sonora | 1,790 ft545 m |
| Airport (O22) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 2.1 mi northwest of the city limits | 2,121 ft646 m |
| Average of all land | 1,920 ft585 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
1.6 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Tuolumne County, California, United States
- Population
- 4,855 2024 est.
- Land area
- 3.2 sq mi
- Density
- 1,539 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 37.9841° N, 120.3821° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Cascade-sierra Mountains
- Drains to
- Tuolumne River → San Joaquin River → Pacific Ocean
- Airport
- Columbia (O22) 2,121 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 95370
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Cedar Ridge3,820 ft
- Soulsbyville2,970 ft
- Mono Vista2,820 ft
- Tuolumne City2,620 ft
- Phoenix Lake2,620 ft
- East Sonora2,170 ft
- Columbia2,130 ft
- Sonora1,940 ft
- Tuttletown1,580 ft
- Jamestown1,500 ft
- Chinese Camp1,220 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in California384th highest of 1,622
- Towns in Tuolumne County16th highest of 19
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Airola Peak9,920 ft
- Dardanelles Cone9,527 ft
- Mokelumne Peak9,337 ft
- Bullion Knob4,240 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.