The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) is monitoring three systems in the Atlantic, including a major storm that continues to strengthen.
Kirk is currently a Category 4 storm on the 5-point Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale and is expected to strengthen further into a super typhoon, according to the NHC's latest hurricane forecast on October 3.
While Kirk is expected to remain over open ocean, large waves from the storm are expected to sweep the east coast of the United States and the Bahamas on October 6, with life-threatening and dangerous currents.
Kirk is expected to become the third superstorm since September 25 - after Hurricanes Helene and Isaac. This is the first time in history (since 1851) that the Atlantic has had three super typhoons in more than a week, said Dr. Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University specializing in Atlantic typhoon forecasting.
On October 3, President Joe Biden landed at Tallahassee International Airport en route to Perry, Florida to witness the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.
Also in the Atlantic basin - including the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, the NHC is monitoring Tropical Storm Leslie and a potential low pressure system in the Caribbean moving into the Gulf.
The next named storms of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season will be Milton and Nadine.
No major hurricanes are expected to make landfall yet, but a large area of low pressure is expected to form in the Gulf of Mexico later this week or early next week.
Current environmental conditions limit the ability to form a tropical system, but regardless of how it develops, locally heavy rains could occur in parts of the Florida Peninsula next week, according to the NHC.
The US National Hurricane Center said that at 5:00 p.m. on October 3 (local time), the center of Kirk was located near 21.1 degrees north latitude, 46.7 degrees west longitude, 1,740 km east-northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands; 2,663 km southwest of the Azores.
Maximum sustained winds near the center of the storm are 202 mph. The storm is moving northwest at a speed of 19 km/h, expected to turn north and north-northeast at a faster pace over the weekend.
Kirk is a Category 4 storm but will continue to strengthen in the next 24 hours. Tropical storm winds spread up to 300km from the center of the storm.
Also at 5:00 p.m. on October 3, the center of tropical storm Leslie was located near 10.1 degrees north latitude, 31.5 degrees west longitude, 933 km west-southwest of the extreme southern Cabo Verde Islands.
Maximum sustained winds near the center of the storm are 80 km/h, moving west at a speed of 10 km/h. The storm is forecast to gradually strengthen steadily in the next 48 hours.
Meanwhile, a large area of low pressure is likely to form in the Gulf of Mexico later this week or early next week.
