Morehead City, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Morehead City, North Carolina, shaded from sea level level on the Newport River to 31 ft on the east side
Elevation
33 ft 10 m25 ft 8 m21 ft 6 m12 ft 4 m4 ft 1 m0 ft 0 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.
Town area
Fades everything outside the official town limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Morehead City sits at about 13 ft (4 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
13 ft 4 m
most residents: 5–21 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on the Newport River
Highest
31 ft 9 m
on the east side
Average
12 ft 4 m
all land inside town limits

Morehead City spans about 31 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.

4% of Morehead City's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 12% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
13 ft4 m
Highest point
Inside town limits, on the east side
31 ft9 m
Lowest point
Where the land meets the Newport River
0 ft0 m
Town center
USGS map point for Morehead City
16 ft5 m
Airport (MRH)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 0.6 mi east of the town limits
10 ft3 m
Average of all land12 ft4 m

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Morehead City, North Carolina, shaded from sea level level on the Newport River to 31 ft on the east side
Town limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 10 ft (3 m).
Location
Town in Carteret County, North Carolina, United States
Population
9,963 2024 est.
Land area
7.4 sq mi + 3.2 sq mi water
Density
1,339 per sq mi
Coordinates
34.7229° N, 76.7260° W
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Coastal Plain
Drains to
Onslow Bay
Airport
Michael J Smith Field (MRH) 10 ft
ZIP codes 2
28516 28557
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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. Newport25 ft
  2. Broad Creek25 ft
  3. Brandywine Bay19 ft
  4. Morehead City13 ft
  5. Indian Beach9 ft
  6. Beaufort9 ft
  7. Pine Knoll Shores9 ft
  8. Atlantic Beach8 ft
  9. Harkers Island7 ft
  10. Gloucester6 ft
  11. Marshallberg4 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • High Hill, Carteret County22 ft
  • Bald Hill10 ft
  • Diamond City Hills6 ft
How we measure
  • Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the town 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 town limits (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, −2 ft at 34.7332° N, 76.7090° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
  • 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; NOAA tidal surfaces (MHHW). All public domain.