Lompoc, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 10.3 miles west of Lompoc, CA
Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 10.3 miles west of Lompoc, CA, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.
What "Lompoc" means on this page
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Lompoc, CA, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 34.61, -120.64. Survey years: 1852-2016, method LRR, from USGS's California shoreline-change assessment. That's how current the data is here, real, but not a live feed, since a shoreline survey is a major undertaking, not an annual check-in.
Where this fits nationally
4 transects feed this segment's number; 100% of them individually measured retreat. USGS's confidence interval here is ±0.4 ft/yr. The unadjusted figure here, -0.1 ft/yr, would place it 648 of 1211 if ranked directly - but an unreliable rank isn't a useful one, which is exactly why "no significant trend" is the headline instead. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 1153 nationally for growth belongs to Orick, CA, 505 miles from this stretch, measured at 1.86 ft/yr. 1.9 miles away, Lompoc, CA is the nearest other measured stretch: also no significant trend.
Lompoc, CA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.