Eyes on risk of cyclone forming

ALL eyes will be on the Coral Sea from next week as meteorologists wait for a cyclone to form.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Adam Woods said a monsoon trough moving north could result in a cyclone forming out at sea soon.

“We could have another monsoon period across the north coast,” he said.

“We’ll be keeping an eye out for tropical cyclones forming in the next week.”

But it isn’t the only weather change for the Far North.

Mr Woods said the heatwaves of the past couple of months could begin again.

“Our climate outlook is suggesting that conditions will be warmer and drier for the east coast this year,” he said.

“In the near term … no, there won’t be any heatwaves, but you can’t rule it out in the long term.”

Cairns is already sitting slightly above average, with the highest temperature this week reaching 33C, while the average maximum for March is 30.6C.

Tully grower Cameron Mackay of Mackay Bananas said he wasn’t looking to batten down the hatches for a cyclone just yet.

“There’s not much you can do when there’s a cyclone watch – it’s only when it gets close and you know what’s going to happen that you have to really batten everything down,” he said.

Mr Mackay said the promise of a hotter, drier end to the traditional wet season may actually come as a relief to Tully growers, who are used to dealing with heavy wet seasons.

“A dry forecast for us could mean quite good conditions in most places, it usually just means we don’t get too much rain,” he said.

“I think irrigation supplies are going well for most growers because of wet season we’ve had, if it’s going to be dry, we’ll just irrigate more.”

Cairns has received 1053mm of rainfall in 2019.