New storm Kirk is getting stronger every day, how 'terrible' is it that it is predicted to be the 3rd strongest in 2024?

After Hurricane Helene, a new storm named Kirk has strengthened into a Category 3 storm and is likely to become the third major storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season. The weather forecast for October is the return of major hurricanes, where will they be centered?

Hurricane Kirk forecast to continue to strengthen, forecast to be 3rd strongest in 2024

According to the latest hurricane report from the US National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Kirk reached Category 3 status on October 2. The storm was located approximately 1,855 km east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles with maximum sustained winds of 195 km/h.

Notably, the latest storm in the Atlantic is moving northwest at 12 mph. Kirk is expected to gradually turn north-northwest this week, then north.

Large swells caused by Hurricane Kirk could affect 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.

Latest images of Hurricane Kirk. (Photo: NOAA).

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 those missing after Helene made landfall last week as a Category 4 storm, leaving behind casualties and catastrophic damage.

Hurricane Kirk is forecast to be the third strongest storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. (Photo: NOAA).

Lao Dong quoted the US National Hurricane Center as also noting that Hurricane Kirk is strengthening and is expected to become larger, becoming a large and violent hurricane.

Sharing about this storm, hurricane forecaster Michael Lowry at WPLG Local 10 in Miami, USA, said that although Hurricane 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 coastal areas of the northeast, by early to mid-next week.

In addition to Kirk, the U.S. National Hurricane Center is monitoring 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, following 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.

Storms like Helene are predicted to appear in succession.

In their early forecast for the 2024 hurricane season, experts predicted an extremely violent season. Most recently, Category 4 Hurricane Helene, which tore through the southeastern United States last week, ended hopes of a quiet season.

In particular, the hurricane season is still quite long, with "October traditionally being an active hurricane month, especially in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and off the southeastern coast of the United States," said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the Rosenstiel School of the University of Miami, USA.

Weather experts predict that after Hurricane Helene, the first two weeks of October will be filled with storms and tropical depressions in the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo: CIRA).

Meanwhile, hurricane forecaster Michael Lowry at WPLG Local 10 in Miami, USA, said that "there will be a return of major hurricanes in the first week of October ," he said in his daily update on October 1.

Brian McNoldy also pointed out that names of storms that cause catastrophic damage have often been removed from the list of storm names since 1953.