The first warnings are being issued for communities surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria to prepare for the development of a tropical cyclone this weekend or early next week.
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Weather experts continue to forecast a tropical low is likely to develop over the Gulf later today or tomorrow as a monsoon trough develops over northeastern Australia.
This low is expected to consolidate on the weekend, increasing the likelihood that it will become a tropical cyclone on Sunday or Monday.
While tropical cyclones can be notoriously difficult to predict ahead of time, conditions will be ripe for a tropical cyclone to develop over the Gulf from this weekend.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the Gulf was a notoriously difficult place to predict the track of weather systems like cyclones.
The bureau also says a number of computer models offer wildly different predictions on where the system could track.
A number of models say the developing cyclone will be slow-moving this weekend, before moving towards the west or southwest from Sunday into next week.
"This means the Northern Territory could see tropical cyclone impacts early next week, possibly including damaging to destructive winds, heavy rain, severe thunderstorms and a storm surge," the website Weatherzone says.
Visit http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone for the latest tropical cyclone information and go over your cyclone plan now if you live in northern Australia.
If a cyclone does form it will be called Esther.
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