Noise Levels in Winter Hill, Somerville, MA | Find Quiet Neighborhoods With Our Sound Map
58 dBA
Average noise across Winter Hill
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
9,322
Residents above the EPA 55 dBA threshold
77% of Winter Hill residents
98 dBA
Loudest residential point
Power saw
This map shows modeled outdoor noise across Winter Hill 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 9,322 Winter Hill residents, or 77.1%, live above that level. By land area, 76.2% of Winter Hill is above 55 dBA.
Average noise levels for Winter Hill residents, grouped by direction from the center of Winter Hill. Southern Winter Hill carries the highest population-weighted average; Western Winter Hill carries the lowest. Just 56% of residents in Western Winter Hill live in blocks above the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, about two-thirds of the share in Southern Winter Hill.
Central Winter Hill
57.0 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
67% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Eastern Winter Hill
58.2 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
100% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Northern Winter Hill
59.2 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
90% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Winter Hill
60.7 dBA · Loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
96% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Western Winter Hill
56.3 dBA · Moderate-loud
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
56% of people above 55 dBA
QuietLoud
Southern Winter Hill sounds about 36% louder than Western Winter Hill to the human ear, a 4.4 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 do you need to be?
produces an estimated 98 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 normal conversation an arm’s length away.
At source
98 dBA
Power saw
165 ft
84 dBA
Food blender at arm’s length
330 ft
76 dBA
City bus interior
660 ft
68 dBA
Highway traffic 50 ft away
¼ mile
60 dBA
Normal conversation an arm’s length away
½ mile
52 dBA
Quiet office to normal conversation
Calculated from the model's calibrated attenuation formula. About 15% of Winter Hill sits under tree canopy (about average for neighborhoods) and roughly 71% 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 Winter Hill. 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
General Edward Lawrence Logan International (BOS) sits southeast of Winter Hill. 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 45 dBA on the map's Overall layer. Blocks on the opposite side of Winter Hill, 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 Winter Hill
The bar chart below shows the share of Winter Hill residents in each noise band. About 16% of residents live below the EPA's 55 dBA threshold, and roughly 25% live in blocks above 60 dBA. Long-term exposure in that range is linked to elevated stress hormones and cardiovascular risk.
How Winter Hill Compares
Winter Hill sits at the quieter end of the spectrum. Below: how Winter Hill's average outdoor noise and share of residents above the EPA threshold compare with Spring Hill, Bryant Terrace, Central, and Cambridgeport.
Average noise level (dBA)
Winter Hill's 58.2 dBA pop-weighted average is at the quieter end of the spectrum. Massachusetts as a whole averages 54.3 dBA and the U.S. averages 52.0 dBA. Both are lower than Winter Hill because most of either area is rural land away from major roads.
Share of residents above 55 dBA
About 77.1% of Winter Hill 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, 76.2% of Winter Hill's footprint sits above 55 dBA, against a Massachusetts average of 40.0% and a national average of 28.1%.
What This Means if You're Moving to Winter Hill
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 15% of Winter Hill is under tree cover (about average for 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. General Edward Lawrence Logan International'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.
