Salem, VA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,460 ft 445 m1,340 ft 410 m1,270 ft 390 m1,150 ft 350 m1,020 ft 310 m960 ft 295 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
Salem sits at about 1,100 ft (335 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
1,100 ft 335 m
most residents: 1,020–1,200 ft
Lowest
960 ft 295 m
on the southeast side
Highest
1,460 ft 445 m
at the foot of the Pedlar Hills
Average
1,100 ft 335 m
all land inside city limits
Salem spans about 500 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 | 1,100 ft335 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, at the foot of the Pedlar Hills | 1,460 ft445 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southeast side | 960 ft295 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Salem | 1,070 ft325 m |
| Airport (ROA) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 2.8 mi northeast of the city limits | 1,175 ft358 m |
| Average of all land | 1,100 ft335 m |
| Nearest peak Fort Lewis Mountain, 2.7 mi west of the city limits | 3,280 ft1,000 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
4.2 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Independent city in Virginia, United States
- Population
- 25,908 2024 est.
- Land area
- 14.5 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
- Density
- 1,785 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 37.2935° N, 80.0548° W
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Valley and Ridge
- Drains to
- Roanoke River → Atlantic Ocean
- Airport
- Roanoke/Blacksburg Regional (Woodrum Field) (ROA) 1,175 ft
- ZIP codes 1
- 24153
⤓ 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
- Daleville1,340 ft
- Elliston1,280 ft
- Laymantown1,270 ft
- Cloverdale1,270 ft
- Lafayette1,200 ft
- Cave Spring1,180 ft
- Glenvar1,130 ft
- Hollins1,110 ft
- Salem1,100 ft
- Vinton1,080 ft
- Roanoke1,040 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Virginia197th highest of 700
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Poor Mountain3,920 ft
- Cahas Mountain3,562 ft
- Fort Lewis Mountain3,280 ft
- Catawba Mountain3,180 ft
- Foster Knob2,560 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).
- 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 NGS survey heights. All public domain.