Noise Levels in Wallula Junction, WA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
38 dBA
Average noise across Wallula Junction
Soft rainfall
1
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
1% of Wallula Junction residents
88 dBA
Loudest residential point
Lawnmower at 1 m
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Wallula Junction 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 1 Wallula Junction residents, or 1.1%, live above that level. By land area, 11.7% of Wallula Junction is above 55 dBA.
88.3% below 55 dBA
11.7% above 55 dBA
See how noise in Wallula Junction compares to similar-sized cities.
Eastern Wallula Junction sounds about 0% louder than Western Wallula Junction to the human ear, a 0.0 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.
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Loudest Road Corridors
The model evaluates every road in Wallula Junction using federal traffic counts, posted speeds, heavy-truck ratios, and pavement type. The source level shown is the modeled noise at the road centerline, where it is loudest. Noise drops with distance, faster in vegetated areas and slower over open pavement.
RoadTypeAvg. source dBAPeak source dBA
US-12
Principal arterial
63.2
64
US-730
Minor arterial
56.0
56
Ayers Rd
Local
55.0
55
Finley Rd
Minor collector
53.9
55
Hatch Grade Rd
Local
55.0
55
How far back from US-12 do you need to be?
US-12 produces an estimated 64 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
64 dBA
Busy restaurant
165 ft
51 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
330 ft
44 dBA
Quiet suburban street at night
660 ft
36 dBA
Soft rainfall
¼ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
½ mile
35 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 0% of Wallula Junction sits under tree canopy (much lighter than most cities) and roughly 13% 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.
Rail Noise
Active freight rail runs through parts of Wallula Junction. 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 Wallula Junction
The bar chart below shows the share of Wallula Junction residents in each noise band. About 100% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 0% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Wallula Junction Compares
Wallula Junction sits the lowest among the peer group. Below: how Wallula Junction's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Wallula, Lowden, Cunningham, and Hooper.
Average noise level (dBA)
Wallula Junction's 38.3 dBA pop-weighted average is the lowest among the peer group. Washington as a whole averages 51.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Wallula Junction because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 1.1% of Wallula Junction 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, 11.7% of Wallula Junction's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Washington average of 27.7% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Wallula Junction
- 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 US-12 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 0% of Wallula Junction is under tree cover (much 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.
