Powerful Hurricane Kirk on path to impact Europe as massive post-tropical cyclone

Parts of northwestern Europe are on alert for a significant storm system with origins in the tropical Atlantic.

Hurricane Kirk, the 11th named storm of the 2024 hurricane season, peaked at Category 4 storm status on Thursday and has been on a gradual weakening since then.

However, it will eventually target locations such as the United Kingdom and France with heavy rainfall, rough seas and damaging wind gusts.

Forecast models show impacts beginning midweek as the storm system loses its heat source from the warm Atlantic Ocean and becomes known as a post-tropical cyclone.

A post-tropical storm system is a cyclone that has lost its tropical characteristics but still maintains significant organization to produce heavy rainfall and strong winds.

Kirk misses North America but still has an impact

Kirk began its trek in the central Atlantic on Sept. 29 and rapidly strengthened into a major hurricane a few days later.

The FOX Forecast Center says that due to the orientation of the subtropical ridge and a significant trough, the hurricane bypassed areas such as Bermuda, the Bahamas and the US as it headed on a northeasterly path from the tropics.

Due to the Kirk’s size, with tropical-storm-force winds (40-plus mph) extending outward nearly 300 miles, the National Hurricane Center warns that swells are affecting the US East Coast, even though the hurricane is hundreds of miles away from North America.

Direct impacts will be limited to Europe once the hurricane transitions to a post-tropical system.

Forecast models show upwards of 5 inches of rainfall will be possible from Kirk’s remnants, as well as wind gusts that could approach hurricane-force, once the core of the system approaches Europe later this week.

Remnants could challenge records from ex-hurricanes

According to forecast models, Kirk’s remnants could challenge some records produced during storm systems that originated as hurricanes.

Hurricane Ophelia in 2017 was labeled as one of the worst storms to impact the United Kingdom in decades, with several deaths and damage totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Met Éireann, the national meteorological service that services Ireland, reported the storm system produced winds greater than 70 mph, along with heavy rainfall.

Many trees were damaged, and even an awning of a Cork City football stadium was crumbled during the windstorm.

Despite the damage, the name “Ophelia” was not retired from naming lists by the World Meteorological Organization.

Hurricane names are retired when using the identification would be considered insensitive due to property damage and a significant loss of life.