Noise Levels in Original Thornton, Thornton, CO | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
53 dBA
Average noise across Original Thornton
Quiet office to normal conversation
2,085
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
36% of Original Thornton residents
66 dBA
Loudest residential point
Highway traffic 50 ft away
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Original Thornton 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 2,085 Original Thornton residents, or 36.5%, live above that level. By land area, 38.1% of Original Thornton is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Original Thornton residents, grouped by direction from the center of Original Thornton. Southern Original Thornton carries the highest population-weighted average; Central Original Thornton carries the lowest. Just 32% of residents in Central Original Thornton live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Southern Original Thornton.
Central Original Thornton
52.2 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
32% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Original Thornton
53.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
27% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Original Thornton
53.6 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Original Thornton
57.2 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
62% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Original Thornton
52.6 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office to normal conversation
30% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Original Thornton sounds about 41% louder than Central Original Thornton to the human ear, a 5.0 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 Eppinger Bd do you need to be?
Eppinger Bd produces an estimated 54 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
54 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
165 ft
42 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
330 ft
35 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 12% of Original Thornton sits under tree canopy (about average for neighborhoods) and roughly 45% 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
Denver International (DEN) sits east of Original Thornton. The U.S. Department of Transportation measures aviation noise around this airport directly, 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 75 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Original Thornton, 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 Original Thornton
The bar chart below shows the share of Original Thornton residents in each noise band. About 69% 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 Original Thornton Compares
Original Thornton sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Original Thornton's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Village at North Hills, Twin Lakes, Walnut Grove, and Lamar Heights Area.
Average noise level (dBA)
Original Thornton's 53.3 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Colorado as a whole averages 51.9 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Original Thornton because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 36.5% of Original Thornton 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, 38.1% of Original Thornton's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Colorado average of 25.4% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Original Thornton
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 Eppinger Bd 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 12% of Original Thornton is under tree cover (about average for neighborhoods), 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. Denver 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.
