Australians have been warned to brace themselves for another week of wild weather, as a tropical cyclone heads towards the east coast this week.
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a high chance of Tropical Cyclone Jasper developing into a category 3 weather system by Tuesday or Wednesday as it moves towards Queensland from the South Pacific Ocean.
According to the bureau’s dedicated tropical cyclone forecast, the system also known as 02U has been forming near Fiji for the last week.
It’s expected to hurl west towards the Solomon Islands before turning southward on Wednesday over the Coral Sea.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Felim Hanniffy told the Cairns Post the tropical storm was unpredictable.
“The big uncertainty is how it interacts with a broader upper trough in southeast Australia, which could draw it into the Queensland coast,” he said.
“It has a moderate chance during tomorrow and then increases to a high chance on Tuesday for tropical cyclone development as it moves into the far north.
“The low is expected to move southward and remain well east of the Queensland coast, so no direct impact is expected in the next seven days.”
From Wednesday to Sunday, Queensland’s east coast will experience a period of intense tropical low conditions, with the chance of heavy rains and damaging winds reaching their peak at 90 per cent on Thursday to Friday.
Throughout the week isolated showers and thunderstorms have been forecast across Queensland, while severe heatwave warnings remain in place for the far north and northeast.
Despite the potential deluge, the rainfall predictions at this stage have hovered between 10-50mm, with the majority of showers concentrated along the north coast.
Maximum temperatures around the state are not expected to exceed seasonal averages, ranging from the high 20Cs to mid 30Cs.
Meanwhile, the extreme weather has continued across the country this week, with multiple warnings currently on the go.
Heatwave warnings remain in place for the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland, as outback regions are expected to reach sweltering temps as high as 45C.
It also comes as minor and moderate flood warnings remain in place across Queensland, NSW and Victoria following a series of low pressure systems on the east coast last week.