The latest hurricane information from the US National Hurricane Center said that Hurricane Kirk reached Category 3 status on October 2. The storm was about 1,855 km east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles with maximum sustained winds of 195 km/h.
The latest storm in the Atlantic is moving northwest at 12 mph. Kirk is expected to gradually turn north-northwest and then northward this week.
Large swells caused by new Hurricane Kirk could impact parts of the Leeward Islands and Bermuda this weekend.
Kirk strengthened from a tropical depression into a tropical storm on September 30, then strengthened into a category 1 storm on the afternoon of October 1.
Hurricane forecaster Brooke Silverang of WPBF 25 Certified First Warning said that Hurricane Kirk has the potential to become the third largest storm of the 2024 hurricane season, after Beryl and Helene.
Hurricane Kirk formed and rapidly strengthened as many people in the southeastern United States remained without clean water, cell phone service and electricity while rescuers searched for missing people after Helene made landfall last week as a Category 4 storm, leaving behind many casualties and catastrophic damage.
In its latest hurricane forecast, the US National Hurricane Center also noted that Hurricane Kirk is strengthening and is expected to become larger, becoming a major and severe hurricane.
Hurricane forecaster Michael Lowry at WPLG Local 10 in Miami, USA, said that although Kirk will turn north and stay over the Atlantic, the large waves from this major storm could reach the east coast of the US, from the mid-Atlantic to the northeastern coastal areas, early to mid next week.
In addition to Kirk, the U.S. National Hurricane Center is tracking a broad trough of low pressure that is bringing widespread showers and thunderstorms from the Caribbean Sea to the southern Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters say environmental conditions could help the low pressure system strengthen and a tropical depression could form by the end of the week as the system moves fully into the Gulf of Mexico.
Another depression in the eastern tropical Atlantic strengthened into Tropical Depression 13 on September 30. On October 2, Colorado State University hurricane forecaster Philip Klotzbach said that the depression has strengthened into Hurricane Leslie, becoming the fifth storm to form since September 24, after Helene, Isaac, Joyce, and Kirk. This is a record number of storms between September 24 and October 2, surpassing the previous record of three storms.
