A tropical cyclone watch alert has been issued for Queensland’s far north for the third time

Thousands of people are on alert for the third time as a tropical low intensifies with a chance it could become a cyclone.

A tropical cyclone watch warning has been issued for Queensland’s far north, ahead of what could be the arrival of a third cyclone in the state this summer.

The alert was issued for the southern Gulf coast west of Burketown on Wednesday evening.

Tropical low 07U is currently sitting in the western Gulf and has a 40 per cent chance of developing into Tropical Cyclone on Friday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Port Roper in the Northern Territory to Burketown in Queensland, including Mornington Island and Borroloola, but not including Ngukurr are all within the watch zone.

The Tropical low is likely to bring strong winds and heavy rainfall to the southern Gulf of Carpentaria on Thursday and Friday.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned Tropical low 07U was expected to form in the western Gulf of Carpentaria on Wednesday.

The Bureau has warned communities along the coast between Port McArthur and Mornington Island to prepare for damaging wind gusts of up to 100km/h on Friday morning.

Depending on the movement of the tropical low, damaging wind gusts could extend west to Port Roper and east to Burketown on Friday.

Locally intense rainfall could develop along the southern Gulf of Carpentaria coast throughout Thursday.

The Bureau has also warned tides will be higher than usual between King Ash Bay and Port Roper, with the potential for minor flooding in low-lying coastal areas due to large waves.

The warnings come as a developing monsoon trough lies across the Gulf of Carpentaria and western Peninsula.

The trough is expected to deepen in the coming days through The Gulf and Western Cape York Peninsula before weakening over the weekend.

The monsoon is expected to cause increased rainfall over much of the east coast, with daily rainfall totals expected to fall between 100mm to 150mm from late Wednesday and throughout Thursday and Friday.

The Bureau of Meteorology's latest forecast path for Tropical Low 07U shows the Bureau's best estimate of the cyclone's future movement and intensity. The yellow indicates the watch zone for gale winds for the next 24 hours.

The Bureau’s Felim Hanniffy said severe weather warnings could be issued from Thursday.

“Certainly Friday is probably the peak day in terms of potential tropical cyclone development or risk from the system,” he said according to the Courier Mail.

“The majority of the modelling says it will remain west of Mornington Island, so not expected to kind of drift further east and reach across the Western Peninsula coast.

“From the latter parts of Friday, the risk of developments increases to from very low all the way up to a moderate chance.

“Conditions are expected to be favourable for development, probably the hindrance to the system will be just how close are remains to The Gulf Coast.”

If the tropical low does develop into a Tropical Cyclone, it will be named Lincoln.

A flood watch was also active for southern Gulf of Carpentaria catchments which remained saturated from recent rainfall on Wednesday.

A major flood warning was also in place for Eyre Creek and Flinders River on Wednesday with moderate flood warnings for the Diamantina River and the Nicholson River.

Originally published as A tropical cyclone watch alert has been issued for Queensland’s far north for the third time