Amherst, VA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
850 ft 260 m770 ft 235 m740 ft 225 m660 ft 200 m580 ft 180 m550 ft 165 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.
- Town area
- Fades everything outside the official town limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Amherst sits at about 690 ft (210 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
690 ft 210 m
most residents: 650–740 ft
Lowest
550 ft 165 m
on the northeast side
Highest
850 ft 260 m
on the southwest edge, below higher ground just outside
Average
700 ft 215 m
all land inside town limits
Amherst spans about 300 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 | 690 ft210 m |
| Highest point Inside town limits, on the southwest edge, below higher ground just outside | 850 ft260 m |
| Lowest point Inside town limits, on the northeast side | 550 ft165 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Amherst | 760 ft230 m |
| Average of all land | 700 ft215 m |
| Nearest peak Tobacco Row Mountain, 6.0 mi west of the town limits (NGS survey) | 2,936 ft895 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
2.0 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Town in Amherst County, Virginia, United States
- Population
- 2,128 2024 est.
- Land area
- 4.9 sq mi
- Density
- 434 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 37.5851° N, 79.0514° W
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Piedmont
- Drains to
- James River → Atlantic Ocean
- ZIP codes 1
- 24521
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Buena Vista910 ft
- Concord850 ft
- Lovingston820 ft
- Appomattox810 ft
- Madison Heights780 ft
- Lynchburg760 ft
- Arrington700 ft
- Big Island700 ft
- Amherst690 ft
- Shipman650 ft
- Yogaville470 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Virginia278th highest of 700
- Towns in Amherst Countylowest of 2
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Elk Pond Mountain4,030 ft
- Chimney Rock, Nelson County3,950 ft
- Bluff Mountain3,360 ft
- Tobacco Row Mountain2,936 ft
- No Business Mountain2,750 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).
- 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); BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.