San Clemente, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 2.1 miles west of San Clemente, CA
The coast 2.1 miles west of San Clemente, CA shows no statistically significant trend either way. USGS's transects measured a rate here, but it's smaller than the survey's own margin of error for this stretch, so calling it "eroding" or "growing" would overstate what the data actually shows.
What "San Clemente" 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 San Clemente, CA into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 33.44°N, 117.65°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.
How solid is this number
Averaging 119 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 14% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. The published margin on this reading runs ±0.19 ft/yr. Taken at face value, this segment's raw 0.07 ft/yr reading would land it 833 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. Rank 1085 nationally for growth belongs to Fields Landing, CA, 620 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.85 ft/yr. 1.9 miles up the coast, San Clemente, CA shows 0.19 ft/yr of eroding.
San Clemente, CA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.