The National Hurricane Center is watching two more tropical cyclones strengthening in the Atlantic on Thursday. Hurricane Kirk and Tropical Storm Leslie do not currently pose a direct threat to the country, but threaten to bring more rain to regions already suffering from the effects of Hurricane Helene.

Kirk was upgraded to hurricane status Tuesday evening and is now a Category 3 storm but is expected to strengthen over the next few days, according to the NHC. As it moves northwest across the Central Atlantic, it could reach Category 4 status.

The NHC classifies this system as a major hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour and a minimum central pressure of 948 millibars. It lies 1,185 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands.

Because of this, the NHC warns that life-threatening surf and rip current conditions could occur in the Leeward Islands, Bermuda, the Greater Antilles and the U.S. East Coast as waves spread westward from Kirk.

According to the NHC, Leslie reached tropical storm status Wednesday evening and is expected to move slowly further west through Thursday night, followed by faster west-northwest movement over the weekend.

With maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour and a minimum central pressure of 1,002 millibars, the NHC expects the system to strengthen into a hurricane over the next day. It is currently 515 miles southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands, but there are currently no threats to the country.

However, the area of ​​most interest to the NHC is in the Gulf of Mexico. It says this area of ​​showers and thunderstorms is likely to progress very slowly and could drop several inches of rain across the Gulf Coast and Florida Peninsula.

Heavy rainfall from this system is not currently expected to impact portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia that were hardest hit by Helene.