Alta, IA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,520 ft 465 m1,500 ft 460 m1,490 ft 455 m1,470 ft 450 m1,450 ft 440 m1,440 ft 440 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.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Alta sits at about 1,510 ft (460 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
1,510 ft 460 m
most residents: 1,470–1,520 ft
Lowest
1,440 ft 440 m
on the southwest side
Highest
1,520 ft 465 m
on the north side
Average
1,500 ft 455 m
all land inside city limits
Alta spans about 80 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 | 1,510 ft460 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the north side | 1,520 ft465 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 1,440 ft440 m |
| Airport (SLB) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 5.4 mi southeast of the city limits | 1,488 ft454 m |
| Average of all land | 1,500 ft455 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
1.0 mi west to east through the middle of Alta.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Buena Vista County, Iowa, United States
- Population
- 2,039 2024 est.
- Land area
- 1.1 sq mi
- Density
- 1,891 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 42.6710° N, 95.3047° W
- Time zone
- Central UTC−6 / −5
- Landform region
- Central Lowland
- Drains to
- Maple River → Missouri River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
- Airport
- Storm Lake Municipal (SLB) 1,488 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 51002
⤓ 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
- Alta1,510 ft
- Storm Lake1,430 ft
- Schaller1,420 ft
- Aurelia1,410 ft
- Lakeside1,400 ft
- Truesdale1,370 ft
- Linn Grove1,360 ft
- Rembrandt1,330 ft
- Nemaha1,320 ft
- Galva1,320 ft
- Cherokee1,250 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Iowa8th highest of 1,026
- Towns in Buena Vista Countyhighest of 10
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Pilot Rock1,360 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. All public domain.