Hurricane Kirk is expected to continue strengthening, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Wednesday evening after upgrading the storm to Category 3.

As of Thursday morning, Kirk had maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. Kirk became a hurricane on Tuesday and further strengthened into a major hurricane just a day later. Kirk formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday and is the next major hurricane after Hurricane Helene, which made landfall last Thursday as a Category 4, with maximum sustained winds of about 140 miles per hour, near Perry in the state’s Big Bend region.

Helene brought fatalities to several southern and southeastern states, with storm surges and devastating windsand torrential rains that threatened several dams and flooded Asheville, North Carolina. The storm killed more than 130 people, the Associated Press reported.

Kirk is expected to remain offshore, with the storm’s path veering northeastward this weekend. NHC experts expect the storm to remain a major hurricane until early Monday morning, after which it will weaken to an offshore hurricane.

Before it shifts its path, Kirk will continue to the northwest.

“Kirk expects it to strengthen as it moves northwest over the central Atlantic,” the NHC posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Large waves could hit the US east coast on Sunday.”

This is what a spokesperson for the NHC says Newsweek that the ocean swell is Kirk’s biggest impact on the United States.

“Kirk is expected to grow in size and transmit ocean swells across the central and western Atlantic Ocean. “These swells are likely to increase the risk of dangerous surf and rip currents along the Leeward Islands by Friday, Bermuda and the Greater Antilles by Saturday, and the US East Coast and the Bahamas by Sunday,” the spokesperson said.

Rip currents can be caused by hurricanes or tropical storms that cause disturbances in the ocean, and they can affect a beach even if a tropical storm is hundreds of miles away, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned. Rip currents from Kirk will create dangerous swimming conditions even as the larger waves draw people to the beach.

“While the surf may look more inviting because of the waves, very dangerous rip current threats often increase when swells from distant hurricanes begin to impact the coastline,” National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Will Ulrich previously told us. Newsweekadding that it will be very dangerous for east-central Florida, as well as the East Coast.

And while Kirk is not expected to make landfall directly in the US, the rip currents could be fatal.

“Rip currents are the leading weather-related cause of death in east-central Florida and along the East Coast,” Ulrich said. “Even distant hurricanes can become dangerous.”

Tropical Storm Leslie formed behind Kirk on Wednesday. Leslie is expected to strengthen into a hurricane in the coming days, the NHC said, but the storm is also expected to remain offshore.

Meanwhile, meteorologists are monitoring a disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico that could become a tropical storm if conditions are right. If it forms, that storm could impact Gulf Coast states, including Florida, but the timing and forecast remain unclear.