Hurricane Kirk has hit Category 4 strength, with its winds gaining power as it barrels across the Atlantic.
The hurricane, which was upgraded to Major Hurricane status after it achieved Category 3 strength yesterday morning, now has wind speeds of 145 mph.
While the storm is heading in the opposite direction to the U.S., with its forecast path showing it aiming for the western coast of France, the hurricane is still expected to result in some dangerous surf conditions along the U.S. East Coast.
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“Maximum sustained winds are near 145 mph with higher gusts. Kirk is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale,” the National Hurricane Center said in a public advisory on Friday morning.
National Hurricane Center map of Hurricane Kirk’s path (main) and a NOAA/CIRA satellite image of the hurricane from space (inset). The storm hit Category 4 this morning with wind speeds of up to 145mph.
National Hurricane Center NHC / CIRA/NOAA
“Its strong intensity and increasing size will result in large ocean swells that will propagate far away from the hurricane. These swells will likely increase the risk of dangerous surf and rip currents across the Leeward Islands beginning later today, Bermuda and the Greater Antilles by Saturday, much of the U.S. East Coast, Atlantic Canada, and the Bahamas by Sunday, and the Azores by Monday,” the NHC said in a forecast discussion.
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This comes as Tropical Storm Leslie, which formed in the wake of Kirk in the central Atlantic earlier this week, is forecast to hit hurricane strength by the end of Friday. This storm’s path forecast currently shows it heading towards the U.S. East Coast, though this may change drastically in the coming days—Kirk was initially also forecast to follow a similar path, but subsequently veered dramatically to the northeast.
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“Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 60 mph with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is forecast, and Leslie is expected to become a hurricane by Saturday,” the NHC said in a public advisory.
Leslie is expected to keep getting stronger as it approaches the U.S., as the wind shear that has been limiting its growth thus far is forecast to abate, the NHC said. Leslie may reach wind speeds of up to 110 mph, putting it on the cusp between a Category 2 and Category 3 hurricane.
National Hurricane Center map of Tropical Storm Leslie’s path. The storm is forecast to become a hurricane before the weekend.
National Hurricane Center NHC
“Warm ocean waters, low vertical wind shear (the change in wind speed with height), unstable air, and no layers of dry air. Interaction with another system, such as an upper-level trough, can also result in strengthening under some conditions,” Mathew Barlow, a professor of environmental earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, told Newsweek.
As for Kirk, the wind shear on the hurricane is expected to increase, weakening the hurricane back down to a tropical storm.
“The shear is expected to increase over Kirk during the next few days, along with the potential for intrusions of dry air that could disrupt the hurricane’s convective organization. So while small short-term intensity fluctuations are possible, the overall forecast trend is for gradual weakening through Saturday, with more steady weakening into early next week,” the NHC said.
“As Kirk moves over cooler waters and into a more baroclinic environment, it is expected to lose tropical characteristics and transition to a strong extratropical cyclone.”
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