Howard County, MD Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Howard County, Maryland, shaded from 9 ft on the east side to 880 ft on the northwest side
Elevation
880 ft 270 m660 ft 200 m560 ft 170 m340 ft 105 m120 ft 35 m9 ft 3 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 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.
County area
Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

Howard County averages about 450 ft (135 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 9 ft on the east side to 880 ft on the northwest side.

Average elevation
450 ft 135 m
all land inside the county
Highest
880 ft 270 m
on the northwest side
Lowest
9 ft 3 m
on the east side

Howard County spans about 871 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Average of all land450 ft135 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the northwest side
880 ft270 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the east side
9 ft3 m

Elevation profile, west to east

16 mi west to east through Columbia.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Howard County, Maryland, shaded from 9 ft on the east side to 880 ft on the northwest side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 40 ft (12 m).
Location
County in Maryland, United States
Population
339,668 2024 est.
Land area
250.9 sq mi + 2.4 sq mi water
Density
1,354 per sq mi
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Piedmont 95%
Drains to
Atlantic Ocean
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Carroll County650 ft
  2. Frederick County610 ft
  3. Howard County450 ft
  4. Baltimore County430 ft
  5. Montgomery County410 ft
  6. Prince George's County150 ft
  7. Anne Arundel County89 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Annapolis Rock, Howard County600 ft
  • Chestnut Hill, Howard County540 ft
  • Lawyers Hill270 ft
All 11 towns in Howard County by typical elevation
  1. Lisbon620 ft
  2. Highland480 ft
  3. Fulton410 ft
  4. Ellicott City410 ft
  5. Columbia380 ft
  6. Scaggsville360 ft
  7. Ilchester330 ft
  8. Savage280 ft
  9. North Laurel260 ft
  10. Jessup partly210 ft
  11. Elkridge180 ft
How we measure
  • Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
  • Highest and lowest: the highest land cell. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
  • 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, −52 ft at 39.1643° N, 76.8040° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
  • Nearby Places: neighboring counties and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the county with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it 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).
  • Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
  • 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 (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 (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.