Noise Levels in Washington, Huntington Beach, CA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
61 dBA
Average noise across Washington
Busy restaurant
4,991
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
62% of Washington residents
84 dBA
Loudest residential point
Food blender at arm’s length
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Washington 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 4,991 Washington residents, or 62.3%, live above that level. By land area, 66.7% of Washington is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Washington residents, grouped by direction from the center of Washington. Eastern Washington carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Washington carries the lowest. Just 11% of residents in Western Washington live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, a fifth of the share in Eastern Washington.
Central Washington
54.8 dBA · Moderate-loud
Quiet office to normal conversation
43% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Washington
72.0 dBA · Loud
City bus interior
88% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Washington
62.8 dBA · Loud
Busy restaurant
87% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Washington
57.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
52% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Washington
50.7 dBA · Moderate
Quiet office
11% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Washington sounds about 338% louder than Western Washington to the human ear, a 21.3 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 84 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.
At source
84 dBA
Food blender at arm’s length
165 ft
70 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
330 ft
62 dBA
Busy restaurant
660 ft
54 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
¼ mile
46 dBA
Quiet office
½ mile
38 dBA
Soft rainfall
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 6% of Washington sits under tree canopy (lighter than most neighborhoods) and roughly 63% 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
John Wayne/Orange County (SNA) sits southeast of Washington. 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 Washington, particularly to the northwest, show no measurable aviation contribution. Use the Aviation toggle on the map above to isolate the airport's footprint.
How Noise Is Distributed Across Washington
The bar chart below shows the share of Washington residents in each noise band. About 28% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 41% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Washington Compares
Washington sits the highest among the peer group. Below: how Washington's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Oak View, Sandpointe, Pico-Lowell, and Mid City-Santa Ana.
Average noise level (dBA)
Washington's 61.1 dBA pop-weighted average is the highest among the peer group. California as a whole averages 54.0 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Washington because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 62.3% of Washington residents live in blocks where outdoor levels exceed the EPA's 55 dBA threshold. That's more than any of its peer group. Measured by land area instead, 66.7% of Washington's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a California average of 36.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Washington
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 6% of Washington is under tree cover (lighter 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. John Wayne/Orange County's approach paths concentrate aviation noise to the southeast. Neighborhoods to the northwest 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.
