King tides pushed Lake Worth Pier to a record and flooded Florida’s Atlantic coast

Preliminary readings at Lake Worth Pier reached 0.82 meters (2.7 feet) above mean higher high water on Tuesday, October 27, about 0.05 meters above the highest value in NOAA’s station tables. South Port Everglades topped its own table entry the same morning. Between October 26 and 29 the combination of king tides, onshore wind and elevated seas flooded streets along Florida’s Atlantic coast from Jacksonville to Miami-Dade County.

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No hurricane was involved. The previous marks at both gauges came from Hurricane Nicole in November 2022.

Lake Worth Pier and South Port Everglades against the NOAA tables

NWS Miami measured the Lake Worth Pier peak at 09:24 EDT on October 27, according to The Watchers’ report on the Florida gauges. The reading of 0.82 meters beat the 0.77 meters (2.52 feet) that Hurricane Nicole produced on November 10, 2022, and it sits above the top of NOAA’s Top-10 list for station 8722670. At South Port Everglades the preliminary peak was 0.76 meters (2.48 feet) at 09:30 EDT, 0.12 meters over the 0.64 meter (2.09 foot) entry that Nicole also holds in the table for station 8722956. Later gauge data nudged that October 27 peak to about 0.77 meters (2.51 feet). All three numbers are preliminary and subject to NOAA review.

Virginia Key, farther south, recorded a preliminary 0.77 meters (2.54 feet) around 10:18 EDT. NWS Miami called it the highest king-tide level in the station’s record, which began in 1994, and the third-highest peak of any kind, behind Hurricanes Irma and Wilma.

The margins are small but unambiguous in the preliminary data. Lake Worth Pier exceeded its table value by 0.05 meters, or 0.18 feet, and South Port Everglades beat Nicole’s entry by 0.39 feet. Nicole was a hurricane that pushed storm surge ashore in 2022; this week’s readings came from tides alone, boosted by wind and seas, with no named storm nearby. That is the sense in which the water levels are records, and it is also why NOAA’s review of preliminary data matters before any table is rewritten.

Moderate flooding in northeast Florida

The northern end of the coast crossed its own thresholds a day earlier. St. Augustine reached 0.86 meters (2.82 feet) on October 26, above its 0.76 meter (2.50 foot) moderate-flood mark. Mayport hit 0.73 meters against a 0.70 meter threshold, the St. Johns River near San Marco reached 0.63 meters against 0.61, and NWS Jacksonville recorded 0.78 meters at Fernandina Beach and 0.77 meters at Dames Point, where the moderate threshold is 0.64 meters. Coastal Flood Warnings covered Duval, Flagler and St. Johns counties until 2 p.m. EDT on October 29, and a separate St. Johns River Basin warning ran through 5 a.m. EDT on October 31.

Farther up the coast, NWS Melbourne held a Coastal Flood Warning for Volusia through Martin County until 2 p.m. EDT on October 29, then stepped down to an advisory through 8 a.m. EDT on October 31, citing possible road closures, low-lying inundation and shoreline erosion.

Authorities told residents not to drive through flooded roads or around barricades, and to protect flood-prone property. Because king tides arrive on a published schedule, the exposure is predictable even when the exact height is not, and local agencies in South Florida post their peak windows months ahead.

South Florida streets, bridges and the October 27 peak

Palm Beach County Emergency Management reported tidal flooding and closed the Ocean Avenue bridge in Lantana. In Fort Lauderdale, a preliminary NWS Miami local storm report from October 27 described floodwater reaching more than halfway up a fire hydrant one block from Las Olas Boulevard. City officials said the high tides pushed saltwater through waterways and drainage systems and over seawalls, leaving some roads flooded or impassable. Miami Beach saw water on Collins Avenue.

NWS Miami began easing its highest-level warnings on the evening of October 28, replacing its Coastal Flood Warning with an advisory for the Atlantic coasts of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. On October 29 it said flooding remained likely during high tides and that gauges could again reach moderate levels. The South Florida Water Management District had placed the year’s maximum predicted East Coast tide on October 27, and noted that wind and ocean currents can push observed water above the prediction. Miami-Dade County lists October 24 to 30 among its peak king-tide windows for 2026.

The same week brought record tide-gauge readings on the opposite coast, where San Diego and Huntington Beach made the news, as laid out in a companion report on California’s king tides. On the California side the week’s marks were an 8.52-foot San Diego reading and a local emergency at Huntington Beach, so both coasts saw tide records without a storm offshore. Whether NOAA confirms the Florida numbers as new official records will depend on its review of the preliminary data, a step that had not been announced by October 31.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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