07 October 2024
Western Europe will have to deal with a storm on Thursday, October 10, which is currently raging across the Atlantic Ocean as heavy Hurricane Kirk. Since last week, our weather forecast has shown that potentially dangerous weather with heavy gusts of wind and a lot of rain is on the way in the Netherlands.
Keep an eye on our weather forecast this week.
How strong the wind gusts become in the Netherlands and how far inland they come depends on the precise route that the storm takes
There is currently a tropical cyclone named Kirk in the Atlantic Ocean. Kirk is a (former category 4) hurricane and is slowly moving towards Europe. How strong the wind and especially the gusts will be in the Netherlands on Thursday and how far inland they will come depends on the precise route that the storm takes. The latest data shows that Kirk will end up further south and will therefore not pass directly over our country. In that case, the wind and rain may be strong in the Netherlands, but the impact will probably be less significant.
Extra-tropical transition
On his path north, Kirk encounters increasingly colder seawater, and experiences more of the effects of the Earth’s rotation. As a result, the hurricane loses its circularly symmetrical shape and increasingly resembles a normal extra-tropical cyclone, an ‘ordinary’ storm. This process is called extra-tropical transition. During this process the storm usually weakens. After this, the storm can become stronger again, also because the storm still has characteristics of a hurricane. This ensures that such former tropical cyclones are above average strong upon arrival in Europe.
Atlantic hurricanes reaching Europe
In the past 40 years, 10% of Atlantic hurricanes made landfall in Europe
After Hurricane Ophelia made landfall in Ireland in October 2017, Kirk is once again a tropical cyclone that ‘swings’ directly towards Europe, without first visiting the Caribbean or the United States. In the past 40 years came 10% of Atlantic hurricanes make landfall in Europewhich is about one per year. The Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30. Kirk’s stretch is most common in September because that is when the seawater temperature in the Atlantic Ocean is warmest there.
