Payne Gap, KY Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
3,070 ft 935 m2,650 ft 810 m2,440 ft 745 m2,020 ft 615 m1,590 ft 485 m1,380 ft 420 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.
- Area
- Fades everything outside the official CDP boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Payne Gap sits at about 1,840 ft (560 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
1,840 ft 560 m
most residents: 1,600–1,890 ft
Lowest
1,380 ft 420 m
on the west side
Highest
3,070 ft 935 m
on the south side
Average
2,040 ft 620 m
all land inside the CDP boundary
Payne Gap spans about 1,690 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 | 1,840 ft560 m |
| Highest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the south side | 3,070 ft935 m |
| Lowest point Inside the CDP boundary, on the west side | 1,380 ft420 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Payne Gap | 1,800 ft550 m |
| Average of all land | 2,040 ft620 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
2.4 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Unincorporated community (census-designated place) in Letcher County, Kentucky, United States
- Population
- 347 2020 Census
- Land area
- 2.3 sq mi
- Density
- 151 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 37.1554° N, 82.6593° W
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Appalachian Plateaus
- Drains to
- North Fork Kentucky River → Kentucky River → Ohio River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
- ZIP codes 1
- 41537
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- McRoberts1,880 ft
- Clintwood, VA1,870 ft
- Payne Gap1,840 ft
- Jenkins1,820 ft
- Pound, VA1,710 ft
- Fleming-Neon1,330 ft
- Wheelwright1,290 ft
- Millstone1,260 ft
- Mayking1,220 ft
- Whitesburg1,170 ft
- Virgie980 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Kentucky2nd highest of 552
- Towns in Letcher County2nd highest of 8
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- High Knob4,180 ft
- Black Mountain4,139 ft
- Big A Mountain3,705 ft
- Buzzard Roost3,190 ft
- Stocker Knob2,880 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the CDP boundary, 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 CDP boundary (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, 1,380 ft at 37.1496° N, 82.6901° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
- 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.
- Payne Gap is an unincorporated community; figures cover the census-designated place, a statistical area.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.