Noise Levels in Celeste, TX | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
45 dBA
Average noise across Celeste
Quiet suburban street at night
237
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
14% of Celeste residents
78 dBA
Loudest residential point
City bus interior
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Celeste at 100-meter resolution, combining road, aviation, and rail sources. Green areas measure below 45 dBA. Orange and red exceed the EPA's 55 dBA outdoor threshold linked to long-term health effects. Use the layer toggles to view each source on its own or all together.
What the numbers sound like
- 30 dBAWhisper
- 40 dBASoft rainfall
- 45 dBAQuiet suburban street at night
- 50 dBAQuiet office
- 55 dBAEPA outdoor threshold: light traffic 100 ft away
- 60 dBANormal conversation an arm's length away
- 65 dBABusy restaurant
- 70 dBAHighway traffic 50 ft away
- 80 dBACity bus interior
Population Above the EPA Outdoor Threshold
The EPA's 55 dBA outdoor reference level is a common benchmark for residential noise exposure, especially for activity interference, annoyance, and long-term community noise concerns. About 237 Celeste residents, or 13.7%, live above that level. By land area, 15.4% of Celeste is above 55 dBA.
84.6% below 55 dBA
15.4% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Celeste compares to similar-sized cities.
Noise by Part of Celeste
Average noise levels for Celeste residents, grouped by direction from the center of Celeste. Northern Celeste carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Celeste carries the lowest. Just 1% of residents in Western Celeste live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Northern Celeste.
Central Celeste
45.7 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
Eastern Celeste
47.1 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
Northern Celeste
47.6 dBA · Mostly quiet
Quiet office
Southern Celeste
43.0 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
Western Celeste
40.5 dBA · Quiet
Soft rainfall
Northern Celeste sounds about 64% louder than Western Celeste to the human ear, a 7.1 dBA gap. Every 10 dBA roughly doubles perceived loudness. Within any of these directions, two homes a quarter mile apart can still differ by 10 or more dBA depending on how close they sit to a major highway.
How far back from do you need to be?
produces an estimated 78 dBA at its loudest centerline points. Noise drops logarithmically with distance, with the exact rate depending on what's between you and the road. Tree cover, walls, terrain, and pavement type all matter. At roughly a quarter mile back, traffic fades into the noise level of a quiet suburban street at night.
At source
78 dBA
City bus interior
165 ft
64 dBA
Busy restaurant
330 ft
57 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
660 ft
50 dBA
Quiet office
¼ mile
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 8% of Celeste sits under tree canopy (lighter than most cities) and roughly 7% is impervious surface like pavement and rooftops. Both are folded into the per-place decay rate above. Heavier canopy pulls noise down faster with distance; impervious surfaces slow the drop.
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Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of Celeste. For most blocks the rail-only contribution is small. Combined road-plus-rail noise rarely exceeds road noise on its own. The exceptions are the handful of blocks within roughly a quarter mile of the right-of-way during pass-through hours.
Use the Rail toggle on the map above to isolate rail's contribution from road and aviation.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Celeste
The bar chart below shows the share of Celeste residents in each noise band. About 85% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 1% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Celeste Compares
Celeste sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Celeste's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Wolfe City, Trenton, Floyd, and Merit.
Average noise level (dBA)
Celeste's 45.4 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Texas as a whole averages 50.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Celeste because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 13.7% of Celeste residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's in the middle of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 15.4% of Celeste's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Texas average of 22.8% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Celeste
- Distance from highways matters more than the neighborhood name. Two homes in the same zip code can differ by 20 dBA if one sits 100 meters from and the other 500 meters away. The model captures this at 100-meter resolution, so noise exposure changes block by block.
- Tree canopy can help reduce modeled noise exposure. Roughly 8% of Celeste is under tree cover (lighter than most cities), and the dominant land cover is grassland. Both are measured from federal USDA Forest Service and USGS satellite imagery at 30-meter resolution. Streets with 60% or higher canopy show 3 to 5 dBA lower noise than comparable streets with bare ground or pavement, which is why the per-place decay rate above already accounts for it.
