Van Meter, IA Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Van Meter, Iowa, shaded from 840 ft on the east side to 1,020 ft on the southeast side
Elevation
1,020 ft 310 m980 ft 300 m960 ft 290 m910 ft 280 m870 ft 265 m840 ft 255 m
Contours every 100 ft, bold every 500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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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

Van Meter sits at about 940 ft (285 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
940 ft 285 m
most residents: 880–990 ft
Lowest
840 ft 255 m
on the east side
Highest
1,020 ft 310 m
on the southeast side
Average
930 ft 285 m
all land inside city limits

Van Meter spans about 180 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.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
940 ft285 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on the southeast side
1,020 ft310 m
Lowest point
Inside city limits, on the east side
840 ft255 m
Town center
USGS map point for Van Meter
880 ft265 m
Airport (DSM)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 13 mi east of the city limits
958 ft292 m
Average of all land930 ft285 m

Elevation profile, south to north

2.2 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Van Meter, Iowa, shaded from 840 ft on the east side to 1,020 ft on the southeast side
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 10 ft (3 m).
Location
City in Dallas County, Iowa, United States
Population
1,840 2024 est.
Land area
4.4 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
Density
420 per sq mi
Coordinates
41.5319° N, 93.9541° W
Time zone
Central UTC−6 / −5
Landform region
Central Lowland
Drains to
Des Moines River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
Airport
Des Moines International (DSM) 958 ft
ZIP codes 1
50261
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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

  1. Earlham1,100 ft
  2. Dallas Center1,050 ft
  3. Waukee1,030 ft
  4. Redfield970 ft
  5. Adel950 ft
  6. De Soto940 ft
  7. West Des Moines940 ft
  8. Van Meter940 ft
  9. Clive930 ft
  10. Cumming930 ft
  11. Patterson890 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

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.