Nauset Light stands on one of the most dynamic beaches on Cape Cod, where erosion along the Outer Cape's ocean-facing beaches has averaged about three feet per year for the century scientists have measured it, and this beach is an erosion hot spot that lost more than 45 feet of bluff edge between 2012 and 2016. Offshore sandbars that once slowed waves are no longer forming as they did, focusing wave energy on the base of the cliffs, while winds drive waves higher even when no storm is predicted on land, and climate change is causing more frequent and stronger storms in some areas. These conditions have led seashore managers to plan for strategic retreat and sustainable future beach access, including removing the 1960s bathhouse in 2017 before it was lost to the ocean, placing a new bathhouse far from the eroding bluff, and creating a beach path that eliminates frequent stair replacement. Erosion has also shaped three generations of lighthouses here: the original brick towers were threatened and replaced by removable wooden towers in 1892, the masonry foundation of one tower now lies in the ocean and is sometimes visible at low tide, and Nauset Light, installed in 1923, was moved inland from a point within 20 feet of the eroding cliff in 1996.