South Houston, TX Noise Levels
How loud is South Houston, TX?
At 47.5 dB(A), South Houston, TX falls inside HUD's "Acceptable" noise zone, 65 dB(A) day-night average or below under 24 CFR 51.104, the federal government's own line for building housing with no extra sound attenuation required. The main source is aircraft, well ahead of the other two modes BTS tracks. This describes South Houston as a whole, not a specific block, the underlying BTS map resolves to about 38 meters per pixel, sampled at the town's own center point.
Where South Houston's noise comes from
BTS models these three sources separately before combining them, so a place can be quiet on two and loud on the third.
If you're weighing a move to South Houston
Aircraft noise is intermittent and lower-frequency, which is why FAA’s Part 150 program funds whole-envelope sound insulation for homes inside an airport’s own mapped noise contour rather than relying on window replacement alone.
How South Houston compares nationally
South Houston ranks 2,186 of 3,622 measured places nationally, 1 being the loudest this dataset covers. By population, it ranks 2,284 of the 12,137 places in this dataset, home to about 16,146 people.
Checking one address in South Houston
Nothing here substitutes for checking one address in South Houston directly, and BTS's own map lets anyone do that at no cost.
South Houston's number isn't a one-off calculation, it comes from the same method covered in the methodology guide. The guide to what actually cuts each kind of noise explains why aircraft calls for a different fix than the other two sources.