In Jupiter Inlet Colony, some staircases usually lead to the beach. This week, they led people directly into the ocean.
King tides and rough surf have battered the shore of the tiny town on the north side of the Jupiter Inlet and led to what one town official called "significant" erosion.
The beach lost more than 5 feet of sand height and the water line has consistently overtaken the dunes, Town Manager Heidi Siegel said. One beach access staircase at a house along the beach is damaged because of it. Town residents noticed the most intense impacts from the erosion last weekend.
“The most significant impacts have been in the shoreline area that has been identified by the State as critically eroded for many years,” Siegel wrote in a prepared statement.
“As such, in recent months, the Town has been actively seeking funding from the State to complete a Beach Management Plan that will allow us to take a more proactive approach to coastal erosion.”
What led to the recent erosion in Jupiter Inlet Colony?
Palm Beach County has borne the brunt of king tides that have recently raised water levels and flooded beaches and roadways.
King tide season is in the fall. The powerful tides happen when full and new moons create a stronger gravitational pull, which makes high tides higher than normal.
Strong ocean swells from an early-season nor’easter storm that brought heavy rain and strong winds from the Mid-Atlantic to New England has made the king tides more intense in Palm Beach County.
The waves were also fierce and choppy and projected to reach as high as 6 to 8 feet over the past weekend. The storm also pushed the first cold front of the fall season to the area. The county was under a coastal flood advisory and a coastal flood statement in the early part of the week.
There is a high risk of rip currents for the beaches in South Florida at least through this weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Miami.
A weak disturbance that moved north across the state on Thursday, Oct. 1, is raising rainfall chances. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop over the region through the weekend and downpours could possibly lead to localized flooding across urban and low-lying areas.
High waves and strong currents promote erosion. Sea level rise, wave action and coastal flooding wear down and displace rocks, soils and sands along the coast, removing barriers to beachfronts, according to the U.S. Climate Resilience Tool.
And more flooding may be on the way. The peak of the king tides this year is expected to happen between Oct. 7 to Oct. 13 and Oct. 24 to Oct. 30, the periods with the new moon and the full moon, said George Rizzuto, an NWS meteorologist.
Kid Rock's Jupiter Inlet Colony house sustained damage from erosion in 2024
In February 2024, erosion at the Jupiter Inlet Colony beach created steep drop-offs, some of them 10 feet high, from the dunes to the beach.
Several homes among the 25 that sit on the beach sustained damage from the erosion. The ocean carried away fences, pool structures, trees, bushes and parts of patios, but all of the houses, many of which cost their owners millions of dollars, were still standing.
The singer Kid Rock owns one of the waterfront homes. He lost about a quarter of his backyard to the erosion at the time.
Maya Washburn is a Trending News Reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida-Network. Reach her at mwashburn@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: King tides, rough surf cause 'significant' erosion at Jupiter Inlet Colony beach
