Bureau of Meteorology monitors tropical low that could form off Top End coast

Top End residents face a low risk of a tropical cyclone as the weather system hovers offshore, with forecasters monitoring the development from Tuesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology says it is possible, albeit unlikely, that a tropical low (02U) could form in the Timor Sea early next week. Picture: Bureau of Meteorology

The Bureau of Meteorology says it is possible, albeit unlikely, that a tropical low could form in the Timor Sea early next week.

Presently, a weak trough lies over near the Indonesian archipelago that should persist for the next week.

A spokesperson for the Bureau said should the low form, it would be slow moving in the Timor Sea region, where environmental conditions are generally supportive for development.

The risk of 02U to develop into a tropical cyclone increases from very low Sunday evening to low from Tuesday morning onwards, the spokesperson said.

Tuesday afternoon shows the chances increase slightly. Picture: Bureau of Meteorology

The Bureau’s current seven-day forecast shows the weather system largely offshore, but parts of the system do consistently idle around the Top End coast.

Speculation about the weather system has swirled on social media.

Some users have jokingly suggested they start panic-buying in preparation.

“Toilet paper will be the first thing lol (laugh out loud),” one user wrote on Facebook, a playful reference to Australia’s thought-to-be doomsday crisis during the Covid-19 era when many Australians began buying toilet paper en masse.

The Bureau is only giving seven-day forecasts this cyclone season. Picture: Bureau of Meteorology

Most users, however, believe the system either won’t develop into a tropical cyclone or won’t scrape the Top End at all.

But as one Facebook user notes, “Believe it when you see it coming.”

According to the Bureau, the earliest recorded tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Northern Territory was Tropical Cyclone Alessia in November 2013.

Alessia was a small tropical cyclone that reached category 1 intensity in two stages, the first off the north Kimberley coast and then several days later in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria.

It was the first November tropical cyclone to affect the NT since tropical cyclone Joan in 1975.

You can stay up to date with the latest tropical low/tropical cyclone information via Tropical cyclone forecast at www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/7dayforecast/

Originally published as Bureau of Meteorology monitors tropical low that could form off Top End coast