Ocean Isle Beach, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, shaded from sea level level on the Eastern Channel to 58 ft on the northwest side
Elevation
58 ft 18 m43 ft 13 m36 ft 11 m22 ft 7 m7 ft 2 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

Ocean Isle Beach sits at about 5 ft (1 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
5 ft 1 m
most residents: 4–10 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on the Eastern Channel
Highest
58 ft 18 m
on the northwest side
Average
20 ft 6 m
all land inside town limits

Ocean Isle Beach spans about 58 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.

12% of Ocean Isle Beach's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 17% 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
5 ft1 m
Highest point
Inside town limits, on the northwest side
58 ft18 m
Lowest point
Where the land meets the Eastern Channel
0 ft0 m
Town center
USGS map point for Ocean Isle Beach
2 ft0 m
Airport (60J)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways
33 ft10 m
Average of all land20 ft6 m

Elevation profile, south to north

1.8 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, shaded from sea level level on the Eastern Channel to 58 ft on the northwest side
Town limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 10 ft (3 m).
Location
Town in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States
Population
962 2024 est.
Land area
3.4 sq mi + 0.6 sq mi water
Density
284 per sq mi
Coordinates
33.8943° N, 78.4267° W
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Drains to
Atlantic Ocean
Airport
Odell Williamson Municipal (60J) 33 ft
ZIP codes 1
28469
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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. Carolina Shores42 ft
  2. Little River, SC39 ft
  3. Shallotte35 ft
  4. Calabash33 ft
  5. Varnamtown28 ft
  6. Atlantic Beach, SC26 ft
  7. Sunset Beach26 ft
  8. North Myrtle Beach, SC21 ft
  9. Oak Island16 ft
  10. Ocean Isle Beach5 ft
  11. Holden Beach4 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Sand Hill, Brunswick County56 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, −4 ft at 33.9032° N, 78.3921° 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 and Watershed Boundary Dataset; 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.