Weather tracker: End of Hurricane Kirk brings gusts and rain to Europe | Hurricanes

Hurricane Kirk is heading towards Europe. At its peak in the Mid-Atlantic, Kirk reached Category 4 status with maximum winds of 145 miles per hour. As Kirk moves northeast toward Europe, leaving warm seas behind, it is expected to be downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane by Monday.

Over the next few days, Kirk will undergo an extratropical transition and become a former hurricane when it reaches the shores of Europe on Tuesday or Wednesday. Although there are still some model differences regarding the exact path of Extratropical Cyclone Kirk, it is expected to stretch across northern Europe, with France, Belgium, the Netherlands and then northern Germany experiencing the strongest winds and heaviest rainfall. The southernmost parts of the UK may experience heavy rainfall as the system continues a little further north.

Hurricane activity in the Atlantic remains strong and Hurricane Leslie is also being closely monitored. Located in the Mid-Atlantic, Leslie was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday, with maximum sustained winds reaching 90 mph Sunday evening. Leslie is not expected to last long and is expected to become a tropical storm again with no interaction with land by Tuesday morning.

A tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico called Milton was recently upgraded to tropical storm status, marking the 13th tropical storm to hit the Atlantic so far this season. Milton is forecast to rapidly strengthen into a major hurricane as it heads toward Florida in the coming days. While there is still uncertainty about the exact path and intensity of the system, damaging winds, heavy rain and a life-threatening storm surge are possible along parts of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula. This will be barely a week after Hurricane Helene caused significant loss of life and devastation in a number of states.

Meanwhile, the drought in South America remains a major crisis for many after months of below-average rainfall. This led to extensive forest fires in Brazil just a few weeks ago. According to the Brazilian Geological Survey, water levels in the Amazon have been falling for months and have reached a 120-year low in the port of Manus, located on the tributary of the Negro River in northern Brazil. The water level here was 12.66 meters, compared to an average of 21 meters, and is expected to continue to fall for several weeks.