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I remember hearing somewhere that only 2 (Denver and Atlanta) of the major league stadiums exceed 1000 ft AMSL. That may have predated inclusion of Phoenix and SLC though.
The really high altitude major cities are few and far between...Denver, and Salt Lake. Perhaps you could quibble with other smaller locales, but let's face it, most of our population is located less than 1,000 feet, or at sea-level.
Wish I could do this with more current city census data, but oh well.
Sorted by lowest elevation level, then highest, then added a third, variance. That subtracts the highest elevation point in the city to the lowest, which result in most terrain.
What I learned: Phoenix, which I knew had one of the highest low elevation point doesn't have a highest point much different (1,160 feet highest elevation and 1,058 lowest elevation for 102 foot variance) making it in theory one of the flatter cities.
Cities with lowest elevation below 1,000 feet: (44 out of 50)
1. NYC sea level
2. Los Angeles sea level
3. Chicago 579 feet
4. Philadelphia sea level
5. Houston sea level
6. Detroit 575 feet
7. Dallas 390 feet
8. San Diego sea level
9. Baltimore sea level
10. San Antonio 505 feet
11. Indianapolis 664 feet (interesting Indianapolis slightly higher than San Antonio)
12. San Francisco sea level
13. Memphis 135 feet
14. Washington D.C. 1 foot
15. Milwaukee 579 feet
16. San Jose sea level
17. Cleveland 571 feet
18. Columbus 685 feet
19. Boston sea level
20. New Orleans -8 feet below sea level
21. Jacksonville sea level
22. Seattle sea level
23. Nashville 385 feet
24. St. Louis 385 feet
25. Kansas City 720 feet
26. Atlanta 738 feet
27. Pittsburgh 710 feet
28. Cincinnati 433 feet
29. Fort Worth 513 feet
30. Minneapolis 687 feet
31. Portland sea level
32. Honolulu sea level
33. Long Beach 7 feet below sea level
34. Tulsa 620 feet
35. Buffalo 571 feet
36. Toledo 571 feet
37. Miami sea level
38. Austin 406 feet
39. Oakland sea level
40. Newark NJ sea level
41. Charlotte 519 feet
42. Omaha 960 feet
43. Louisville 382 feet
44. Birmingham 496 feet
Of the remaining 6 over 1,000 feet elevation lowest elevation in city:
Surprised Kansas City is only 720'. It's slightly lower than Rockford, IL (728'). I had the impression that it gradually increased throughout the Midwest going west from Lake Michigan, eventually hitting 3-4000' in the western Great Plains, and that Kansas City would be maybe 1,500'. But I guess that really doesn't start until farther west.
(Edit: just saw that was the lowest elevation and the highest is 1020'. Still a bit less than I was thinking)
Last edited by TheTimidBlueBars; 10-20-2023 at 12:04 PM..
Surprised Kansas City is only 720'. It's slightly lower than Rockford, IL (728'). I had the impression that it gradually increased throughout the Midwest going west from Lake Michigan, eventually hitting 3-4000' in the western Great Plains, and that Kansas City would be maybe 1,500'. But I guess that really doesn't start until farther west.
(Edit: just saw that was the lowest elevation and the highest is 1020'. Still a bit less than I was thinking)
Much of the central US drains into the Mississippi River. Locations along the river are at a lower altitude than those upstream along its system of tributaries. Kansas City being at a higher altitude than St. Louis is such an example. Meanwhile the Lake Michigan watershed extends only a minimal distance into Illinois, and does not include Rockford.
Finally sorting for variance (disparity between highest and lowest elevation:
City High Feet Low Feet Variance
Los Angeles5,074 0 5,074
Honolulu 4,020 0 4,020
San Jose 2,125 0 2,125
Oakland 1,754 0 1,754
Albuquerque6,120 4,946 1,174
Portland 1,073 0 1,073
San Francisco934 0 934
San Diego 823 0 823
Nashville 1,160 385 775
Tucson 2,950 2,250 700
Austin 1,080 406 674
Pittsburgh 1,370 710 660
Birmingham1,060 496 564
Cincinnati 960 433 527
Seattle 520 0 520
San Antonio1,000 505 495
Baltimore 489 0 489
Cleveland 1,050 571 479
Philadelphia441 0 441
New York 410 0 410
Washington410 1 409
El Paso 4,080 3,695 385
Louisville 761 382 379
Long Beach360 -7 367
Atlanta 1,086 738 348
Denver 5,470 5,130 340
Boston 330 0 330
Omaha 1,272 960 312
Kansas City1,020 720 300
Dallas 686 390 296
Minneapolis980 687 293
OKC 1,334 1,050 284
Newark 278 0 278
Charlotte 784 519 265
Fort Worth 766 513 253
St. Louis 614 385 229
Milwaukee 799 579 220
Columbus 893 685 208
Tulsa 810 620 190
Indianapolis 845 664 181
Memphis 335 195 140
Buffalo 699 571 128
Phoenix 1,160 1,058 102
Detroit 672 575 97
Chicago 673 579 94
Houston 83 0 83
Toledo 627 571 56
Jacksonville 40 0 40
New Orleans25 -8 33
Miami 30 0 30
It almost defaults to "If you're at the top, you're a city with a sea cliff; if you're at the bottom, you're a city on the beach without a sea cliff." It's kinda jarring with Albuquerque being the lone inlander until the string starting with Nashville and a the lot of notable hilly east coast cities (Anyone know when the other city-county merger cities were? I do know Nashville was in the 60s, but I think Louisville was later than 1980 when this data was from).
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