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Editor's note: This story was published Tuesday. Click here to follow the latest developments on Hurricane Kirk.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season remains active as the calendar turns to October, traditionally Florida's busiest month for hurricanes.

Although the only named storm out there is the distant (and strengthening) Hurricane Kirk, the National Hurricane Center is also monitoring two other tropical disturbances, including one in the Caribbean Sea.

And it's this developing system that has people in the U.S. most concerned, as forecasters say it could become a named storm in the Gulf of Mexico by next week.

Hurricane forecast for October: Prepare for the “return of major hurricanes.”

The storm activity follows deadly and devastating Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida last week and brought heavy, flooding rains across the Appalachian Mountains. More than a million people were still without power as of Tuesday afternoon.

Tornadoes, hurricanes, snow and heat: Sign up for USA TODAY's Climate Point newsletter for exclusive weather analysis.

Tracking Hurricane Kirk

The hurricane center said Tuesday afternoon that Hurricane Kirk formed about 1,700 kilometers west of the Cape Verde Islands and had maximum sustained winds of about 120 kilometers per hour, making it a Category 1 storm. The system is expected to continue moving toward the west-northwest through Tuesday night before gradually turning toward the northwest on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Additional strengthening is forecast over the next 48 hours and Kirk is expected to become a major hurricane by Thursday,” the NHC said Tuesday afternoon. A major hurricane is Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

Current forecast models show the system curving north into the mid-Atlantic, far from the United States

Helene aftermath: On the banks of Helene's destruction: The North Carolina town tries to stay afloat

Atlantic Storm Tracker

NHC tracking system in the Caribbean

Hurricane forecasters are also keeping a close eye on a low pressure system that is causing patchy showers and thunderstorms across the northwest Caribbean.

The hurricane center said Tuesday morning that environmental conditions could support gradual development of this system. “A tropical depression could form over the next few days as the system moves northwestward over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and the southern Gulf of Mexico,” the center said in a forecast Tuesday morning.

Over the next week, one or two tropical storms could form from the system and potentially move over a portion of the southeastern United States that was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, AccuWeather said.

“Stakeholders along the U.S. Gulf Coast should continue to monitor the progress of this system,” the NHC said Tuesday morning, giving the system a 40 percent chance of forming over the next seven days.

Hello Leslie?

Another system, currently named Invest 91L, was located a few hundred miles south of the Cape Verde Islands on Tuesday. The system is producing showers and thunderstorms that are showing “some signs of organization associated with a broad area of ​​low pressure,” the NHC said Tuesday morning.

The hurricane center said environmental conditions appear conducive to further development of this system and that a tropical depression is expected to form over the next few days as it slowly moves westward across the eastern tropical Atlantic.

According to the NHC, there is a 90 percent chance of the system forming in the next 48 hours and a 90 percent chance of it forming in the next seven days.

If it becomes a tropical storm, it would likely be named Leslie.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Gabe Hauari is a nationally featured news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at [email protected].

On By John Fenwick

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