Australia Weather News

Tropical Cyclone Fina has formed off the Northern Territory coast and is expected to intensify to category two before potentially making landfall as early as Friday.

Forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology say Fina is a category one storm with 75km/h winds at its centre and gusts of up to 100km/h.

The cyclone is 315 kilometres north-north-east of Darwin and 195 kilometres north-north-west of Minjilang and moving north-east at 9km/h.

Tropical Cyclone Fina is expected to continue moving east-north-east before intensifying to category two by Wednesday night and then turning towards the coast on Thursday.

No direct impacts are expected for NT residents within the next 48 hours, with emergency services continuing to advise people to follow directions as they come.

The weather bureau's latest tracking map has Fina making landfall west of Minjilang early Saturday morning before continuing towards the Tiwi Islands.

The BOM issues a tropical cyclone watch when gales are expected in the next 24 to 48 hours.

The cyclone watch is escalated to a warning, which is updated every three hours, when gales are expected to hit "in the next 24 hours or are already occurring".

Category two current forecast maximum

BOM forecaster Jonathan How said, based on current forecasts and modelling, the BOM was not expecting the system to develop into a category three cyclone.

"It is pretty close to the coast. We'd want it to be a little bit further away from the coast over very open waters to strengthen [further]," he said.

"There's not really any sort of big monsoon burst or pulse of tropical winds coming through to give it the extra bit of oomph to get [it to category three strength].

"At this stage, category two is the forecast."

A category two cyclone typically has "destructive winds" with speeds between 125 to 164 kilometres per hour.

Once it moves closer to land, Mr How said, the system could reduce in strength.

"As cyclones move over land or move near land, it can start to lose a bit of power," he said.

"We're waiting to see just how it does progress as we head towards the weekend."

On Wednesday, BOM senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury told the ABC there were "still a few different scenarios" about how the cyclone could play out.

"The best estimate at this point in time is that it will move south, then south-west back close to the coast," she said.

"We don't anticipate any direct impacts for the NT until late this week, going into this weekend, but it's definitely a system that we're keeping a close eye on — even as it moves gradually away today — and then, most likely, back towards the coast later this week."

Residents urged to be prepared

The NT Emergency Service has urged Top End residents to prepare for the cyclone to hit by organising a cyclone kit and shelter plans.

NT Emergency Services chief officer Wayne Snell said he was confident Territorians would be well prepared for whatever eventuated.

"I think one of the things about Northern Territorians is that we are a resilient crowd. We're fairly used to the development of severe weather up here," he said.

"It is a little earlier in the system than normal, which is the reason why we've gone out fairly hard with the messaging to try and help everybody prepare, make sure that they've got their plan in place, make sure that they've got their emergency kit in place, and make sure that they've stocked up and got ready.

"And also that they've organised the way that they're going to receive information through the ABC and through the Secure NT website."

Darwin has not experienced a cyclone since Cyclone Marcus crossed as a category two system in 2018.

It left almost 29,000 properties without power.

Soon after winning government, the Country Liberal Party NT scrapped Darwin's underground power rollout.

The strongest cyclone to ever hit Darwin was Cyclone Tracy in December 1974, which devastated the city and killed 66 people.