The hurricane count for the 2024 Atlantic season has increased by one.

The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon that Tropical Storm Kirk had strengthened into a hurricane, the seventh this season and the third in the past six days.

Kirk posed no threat to landfall and is expected to head out into the open Atlantic later this week. However, forecasters say Kirk could continue to strengthen and peak as a Category 3 storm with winds of 125 miles per hour.

Here is the track from Tuesday’s hurricane center:

As of 4:00 p.m. CDT Tuesday, Hurricane Kirk was approximately 1,070 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands and moving northwest at a speed of 12 miles per hour.

Kirk had winds of 75 miles per hour, making it a Category 1 hurricane.

Kirk’s new title makes it the seventh of the season. The others so far in 2024 are: Beryl (Category 5), Debby (Category 1), Ernesto (Category 2), Francine (Category 2), Helene (Category 4) and Isaac (Category 2).

Beryl, Debby, Francine and Helene all ended up on the US Gulf Coast.

The hurricane center said September tropical activity was near average for named storms and hurricanes. There were six named storms in September and three became hurricanes. One of them, Helene, became a major hurricane.

The hurricane center said that based on 30 years of climatology (1991-2020), between 4 and 5 named storms typically develop in September, with three of them becoming hurricanes and one of them becoming a major hurricane.

Kirk was the only named storm in the Atlantic on Tuesday. However, forecasters expected a tropical disturbance to develop in the Caribbean and far away in the eastern Atlantic.