The latest hurricane report from the US National Hurricane Center said Kirk reached Category 3 status on October 2. The storm is about 1,855 km east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles with maximum sustained winds of 195 km/h.
The latest Atlantic storm is moving northwest at 19 km/h. Kirk is expected to gradually turn north-northeast this week before moving north.
The large waves caused by the new storm Kirk could affect parts of the Leeward and Bermuda Islands this weekend.
Kirk strengthened from a tropical depression into a tropical storm on September 30, then strengthened to a Category 1 storm on the afternoon of October 1.
WPBF 25 Certified First Warning forecaster brook Silverang said Kirk has the potential to become the third major hurricane of the 2024 hurricane season, after Beryl and Helene.
Hurricane Kirk quickly strengthened as many people in the southeastern United States still lack clean water, mobile phone and electricity while rescue teams are searching for missing people after Hurricane Helene made landfall last week as a Category 4 storm, leaving many casualties and catastrophic damage.
The National Hurricane Center also noted that Kirk is strengthening and is expected to intensify into a major and intense hurricane.
Hurricane forecaster Michael Lowry at WPLG Local 10 in Miami, US, said that although Kirk will turn north and be in the Atlantic, the large waves extending from this major storm could reach the eastern coast of the US, from the mid- Atlantic to coastal areas of the northeast, from early to mid-next week.
In addition to Kirk, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a wide trough that will produce widespread showers and thunderstorms in the area from the Caribbean Sea to southern Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters say environmental conditions could help the depression strengthen and a tropical depression could form by the end of the week as the system moves fully into the Gulf of Mexico.
Another low pressure in the eastern tropical Atlantic tropical depression has strengthened into Tropical Depression 13 since September 30. On October 2, Colorado State University hurricane forecaster Philip Klotzbach said the tropical depression had strengthened into Hurricane Leslie, becoming the fifth storm to form since September 24, after Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk. This is a record for the number of storms between September 24 and October 2, surpassing the previous record of 3 storms.
