Port Arthur, TX Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 14.2 miles south of Port Arthur, TX
5.97 feet a year: that is the measured retreat rate USGS's transects show for the coast 14.2 miles south of Port Arthur, TX, averaged across the full historical record surveyed here. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 59.7 feet over the last decade.
What "Port Arthur" means on this page
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest Port Arthur, TX into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 29.70°N, 93.95°W. USGS's Gulf of Mexico assessment last surveyed this stretch through 2001, computing the rate with its LRR method. Other US regions were surveyed in different years, sometimes decades apart, so this page states its own rather than implying one national vintage.
25 years at this rate
If 5.97 ft/yr holds for the next 25 years, the coast 14.2 miles south of Port Arthur, TX would retreat roughly 149 more feet, a projection, not a certainty: erosion rates shift with storms, sediment supply and any armoring built in the meantime.
Where this fits nationally
This reading comes from 81 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 2.79 ft/yr either side. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 43. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. Port Arthur, TX sits at national rank 60 for erosion (4.58 ft/yr), one reference point among the 1211 scored segments, 2 miles from here. 2.1 miles up the coast, Port Arthur, TX shows 4.58 ft/yr of eroding.
Port Arthur, TX on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.