Australia Weather News

A tropical cyclone is expected to form on Tuesday morning off north Queensland and could reach category 3 strength, as the Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) Townsville radar remains offline.

A strengthening low is sitting in the monsoon trough just over 200 kilometres east of Innisfail, and a Flood Watch has been issued for coastal catchments between Cooktown and Rollingstone.

The system is expected to develop to tropical cyclone strength on Tuesday and will be called Niran.

But the BOM's Townsville radar is offline due to a technical fault and will remain out of action for days.

"There is a tropical cyclone watch between Cape Flattery and Lucinda, extending inland to Mareeba and Atherton," meteorologist Shane Kennedy said.

"While there remains a range of possible scenarios, a direct coastal crossing is unlikely, with the system most likely to meander off the coast for a few days and then track quickly south-east late in the week."

He said the cyclone may move close enough to the coast to bring gale force winds, heavy rainfall and abnormally high tides to coastal districts.

Since 9:00am, 237 millimetres of rain has fallen at Clump Point at Mission Beach, south of Innisfail.

Other totals include 180mm at Cowley Beach and 176mm at South Mission Beach.

About 200mm of rain fell in areas south of Cairns over the 24 hours to 9:00am, including 219mm at Alva Beach, 196mm at Ayr and 183mm at Lucinda and Groper Creek.

As of 3:00pm, more than 40,000 homes were without power.

The Bruce Highway has been cut near Deeral, north of Innisfail, due to fallen powerlines.

Fallen powerlines closed the Captain Cook Highway for a number of hours on Monday morning, causing major traffic delays in the city. The road has since reopened.

The Gillies Range, which connects Cairns to the Atherton Tablelands, has also been closed after several traffic incidents.

An emergency alert has been issued for Palm Island residents who are being told to brace for the tropical low, with power outages already occurring on the island due to fallen trees and powerlines.

The council advised that ferry services and flights to and from the island were suspended.

The island's cemetery was closed after days of intense rainfall which caused saturation.

Residents are also being asked to fill containers with clean water in case of widespread power outages.

Six state schools south of Cairns have been closed due to flooding, including Babinda, Murray River and South Johnstone State Schools.

11,000 Catholic school students have also been told not to attend school tomorrow across the Cairns district, with 28 of its schools closing until at least Wednesday.

Outage could impact SES operations

Meanwhile, the BOM is waiting on a part needed to repair the Hervey Range radar.

"There is a technical issue with the Townsville radar and it is currently offline," a spokesperson said.

"Our technicians are working to rectify the issue as a priority. Warning services and forecasts are not impacted."

He said BOM expected the issue to be rectified by Thursday.

SES Area Controller for the Northern Region, John Forde, said the team did use the radar for operational planning, with crews already responding to callouts.

"Apart from being an inconvenience, it does actually cause us some operational issues as well," he said.

"It also helps us with planning as to when we can put crews out into the field and when we can't, and when we know we're going to get an increase in calls, when we see those rain bands come across.

"If we have the radar up and running we know to expect some additional calls at certain times of the day."

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said "it's not good enough", with a cyclone brewing in the region.

"To have service technicians only available in Cairns and Brisbane, is a bloody big stretch. It's ridiculous. This state is nearly three times the size of Victoria," she said.

"When you've got inclement weather, how the hell are they going to get here?"