Pescadero, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 4.7 miles south of Pescadero, CA?
The coast 4.7 miles south of Pescadero, CA has been retreating at a measured 0.21 feet a year, USGS's own long-term rate for this stretch, built from historical shoreline positions rather than a single survey. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 2.1 feet over the last decade.
What this reading actually covers
This is a roughly 3.5-mile stretch of coast, not one address or parcel - USGS's own transects run every few hundred feet, but that's finer than any one property needs, so this page reports the stretch nearest Pescadero, CA. Centered near 37.18°N, 122.37°W. 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.
25 years at this rate
If 0.21 ft/yr holds for the next 25 years, the coast 4.7 miles south of Pescadero, CA would retreat roughly 5 more feet, a projection, not a certainty: erosion rates shift with storms, sediment supply and any armoring built in the meantime.
How solid is this number
This reading comes from 8 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.14 ft/yr either side. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 496. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. For scale: Dulac, LA, 1899 miles away, ranks 14 of 1211 nationally for erosion, 13.82 ft/yr, many times over this stretch's own rate. 2 miles up the coast, Pescadero, CA shows the same lack of a significant trend.
One address near Pescadero: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.