Noise Levels in Lake Grove, NY | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
53 dBA
Average noise across Lake Grove
Quiet office to normal conversation
2,261
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
21% of Lake Grove residents
70 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Lake Grove 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.
Overall
Road
Rail
Aviation
Click the map to explore
35 dBa55 dBa (EPA limit)90+ dBa
3545557090
Quietest (dBA)Loudest
Colorblind friendlyoff
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 2,261 Lake Grove residents, or 20.6%, live above that level. By land area, 24.5% of Lake Grove is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Lake Grove residents, grouped by direction from the center of Lake Grove. Northern Lake Grove carries the highest population-weighted average; Eastern Lake Grove carries the lowest. Just 18% of residents in Eastern Lake Grove live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, three-quarters of the share in Northern Lake Grove.
Central Lake Grove
52.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
13% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Lake Grove
51.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
18% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Lake Grove
53.7 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
24% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Lake Grove
52.5 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
21% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Lake Grove
52.3 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
18% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Lake Grove sounds about 18% louder than Eastern Lake Grove to the human ear, a 2.4 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 Hawkins Ave do you need to be?
Hawkins Ave produces an estimated 60 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 soft rainfall.
At source
60 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
165 ft
48 dBA
Quiet office
330 ft
40 dBA
Soft rainfall
660 ft
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 41% of Lake Grove sits under tree canopy (about average for cities) and roughly 32% 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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Airport Noise
Long Island Macarthur (ISP) sits south of Lake Grove. The U.S. Department of Transportation models aviation noise around this airport from federal traffic data, and the model uses those federal measurements rather than synthetic predictions.
Blocks under the approach and departure paths carry combined road-plus-aviation noise, with some exceeding 55 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Lake Grove, particularly to the north, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Lake Grove
The bar chart below shows the share of Lake Grove residents in each noise band. About 78% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 4% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Lake Grove Compares
Lake Grove sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Lake Grove's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with St. James, Holtsville, Lake Ronkonkoma, and Nesconset.
Average noise level (dBA)
Lake Grove's 52.8 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. New York as a whole averages 55.4 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Lake Grove because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 20.6% of Lake Grove residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's fewer than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 24.5% of Lake Grove's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a New York average of 30.9% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Lake Grove
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 Hawkins Ave 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 41% of Lake Grove is under tree cover (about average for cities), and the dominant land cover is low-intensity developed land. 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.
Airport noise is directional. Long Island Macarthur's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the south. Neighborhoods to the north of downtown show no measurable contribution from the airport.
Sources & Methodology
The BestNeighborhood noise model is calibrated against nearly one million federal ground-truth measurements across four states. Road noise is computed from segment-level federal traffic data and propagated outward using physics-based acoustic decay, with attenuation rates that depend on the surrounding land cover.
All inputs are published federal datasets. Block-level noise is computed by combining road, rail, and aviation sound sources in the energy domain, the same physics used in professional environmental noise assessments. Read the full methodology.
