Noise Levels in North Meadow Brook, Norfolk, VA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
54 dBA
Average noise across North Meadow Brook
Quiet office to normal conversation
1,281
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
41% of North Meadow Brook residents
92 dBA
Loudest residential point
Power saw
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across North Meadow Brook 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 1,281 North Meadow Brook residents, or 41.0%, live above that level. By land area, 50.0% of North Meadow Brook is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for North Meadow Brook residents, grouped by direction from the center of North Meadow Brook. Eastern North Meadow Brook carries the highest population-weighted average; Northern North Meadow Brook carries the lowest. Just 0% of residents in Northern North Meadow Brook live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Eastern North Meadow Brook.
Central North Meadow Brook
57.4 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
69% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern North Meadow Brook
58.1 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
39% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern North Meadow Brook
43.6 dBA · Quiet
Quiet suburban street at night
0% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern North Meadow Brook
53.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
40% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western North Meadow Brook
55.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
33% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern North Meadow Brook sounds about 173% louder than Northern North Meadow Brook to the human ear, a 14.5 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 92 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 office to normal conversation.
At source
92 dBA
Power saw
165 ft
78 dBA
City bus interior
330 ft
69 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
660 ft
61 dBA
Busy restaurant
¼ mile
53 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
½ mile
45 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 22% of North Meadow Brook sits under tree canopy (heavier than most neighborhoods) and roughly 55% 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 North Meadow Brook. 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.
Airport Noise
Norfolk International (ORF) sits east of North Meadow Brook. 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 65 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of North Meadow Brook, particularly to the west, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across North Meadow Brook
The bar chart below shows the share of North Meadow Brook residents in each noise band. About 46% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 30% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How North Meadow Brook Compares
North Meadow Brook sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how North Meadow Brook's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Highland Park, Park Place, Ghent, and Roosevelt Gardens Area.
Average noise level (dBA)
North Meadow Brook's 54.1 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Virginia as a whole averages 52.8 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than North Meadow Brook because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 41.0% of North Meadow Brook 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, 50.0% of North Meadow Brook's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Virginia average of 30.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to North Meadow Brook
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 22% of North Meadow Brook is under tree cover (heavier than most neighborhoods), and the dominant land cover is medium-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. Norfolk International's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the east. Neighborhoods to the west 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.
