Monsoon trough powering up

[Tyrone]

The monsoon trough across the top end of OZ has reformed and gaining strength. With El Nino officially ended wetter conditions and more cyclones are favoured now. A tropical low is likely to form into a cyclone by tomorrow or Thursday off the Nth coast of QLD. Another low worth watching is in the Gulf of Carpentaria and another tropical low is expected to form and move off the coast of the Kimberley in North West WA by about Tuesday Wednesday next week.

Hold on, this could get bumpy.

Tyrone

[Walter John]

Surf is most definitely up down the coast at present and should stay big for a while longer I'd say, next week for sure with that coral sea development.

[BS Man about Palms]

Hope you guys get some rain out of it.

[Cycadcenter]

Looks as though they think it may head south now towards us down south towards Fraser Island.

"A cyclone forming off Queensland is threatening to cause some serious damage between the Whitsundays and Fraser Island.

The cyclone is expected to form overnight before developing into a severe system, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

A low pressure system was today 650km northeast of Mackay and was expected to form into tropical cyclone Odette overnight, forecaster Peter Otto said.

He said it was then expected to form into a severe cyclone – category three or above – by the weekend.

"Track prediction is always difficult with cyclones but at this stage it's expected to head towards the Whitsunday coast then head down south to the Fraser coast eventually, so it could cause quite a few problems as it does so," he said.

"It should be a big system too, compared to other events we've had recently."

Earlier this month Cyclone Nelson – the first cyclone of the season – crossed north Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria coast but caused little damage before dissipating.

Strong winds, big swells and flooding of low-lying coastal areas is expected and residents are being told to prepare."