St. George Island, FL Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 3.7 miles west of St. George Island, FL?
The coast 3.7 miles west of St. George Island, FL 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 this reading actually covers
Nothing here is parcel-level. USGS's raw transects run every few hundred feet along the shore; this page averages the ones nearest St. George Island, FL into one ~3.5-mile reading rather than picking a single arbitrary line to represent the area. Centered near 29.64°N, 84.95°W. The survey behind it runs to 2001, in USGS's Gulf of Mexico assessment, using the LRR method. Shoreline surveys aren't repeated every year, so this is the most recent long-term measurement USGS has published for this coast, not a live reading.
Where this fits nationally
This reading comes from 114 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.42 ft/yr either side. Taken at face value, this segment's raw -0.42 ft/yr reading would land it 339 of 1211 nationally - a number worth ignoring, since it's statistical noise rather than a real trend. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2004-1089. For scale: Palos Verdes Estates, CA, 1978 miles away, ranks 909 of 1211 nationally for growth, 0.17 ft/yr. 2.4 miles up the coast, St. George Island, FL shows 1.37 ft/yr of eroding.
St. George Island, FL on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.