Portales, NM Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
4,090 ft 1,245 m4,070 ft 1,240 m4,050 ft 1,235 m4,030 ft 1,230 m4,000 ft 1,220 m3,990 ft 1,215 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
Portales sits at about 4,010 ft (1,220 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
4,010 ft 1,220 m
most residents: 4,000–4,020 ft
Lowest
3,990 ft 1,215 m
on the southeast side
Highest
4,090 ft 1,245 m
on the southwest side
Average
4,020 ft 1,225 m
all land inside city limits
Portales spans about 100 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 | 4,010 ft1,220 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 4,090 ft1,245 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southeast side | 3,990 ft1,215 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Portales | 4,010 ft1,220 m |
| Airport (PRZ) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways | 4,078 ft1,243 m |
| Average of all land | 4,020 ft1,225 m |
Altitude Effects
What 4,010 ft means day to day, worked out from the typical elevation.
Water boils at
204.6 °F95.9 °C
vs 212 °F at sea level; USDA: food takes longer to cook.
Air pressure
86% of sea level
25.8 inHg (87.5 kPa): each breath holds 14% less air.
Oxygen equivalent
18.1% at sea level
Air is still 21% oxygen, just thinner. Normal at the coast: 20.9%.
Sunburn
+8% more UV
EPA: UV rises about 2% for every 1,000 ft.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, United States
- Population
- 11,789 2024 est.
- Land area
- 8.0 sq mi
- Density
- 1,468 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 34.1862° N, 103.3344° W
- Time zone
- Mountain UTC−7 / −6
- Landform region
- Great Plains
- Drains to
- Little Salt Lake basin (does not reach the sea)
- Airport
- Portales Municipal (PRZ) 4,078 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 88130
⤓ 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
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in New Mexico484th highest of 528
- Towns in Roosevelt Countylowest of 5
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Chalk Hill4,060 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).
- Altitude effects: standard-atmosphere formulas applied to the typical elevation; UV from EPA's rule of thumb (about 2% per 1,000 ft).
- 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.