Australia Set for Another Cyclone Hit After Storm Forms in North

Australia will be struck by a third tropical cyclone in around two months after a system formed off the country’s north on Friday, with the storm expected to cross the coast in a sparsely populated area.

Tropical Cyclone Lincoln is expected to make landfall between the Northern Territory and Queensland border and Port McArthur later Friday, according to a notice from the Bureau of Meteorology. It’s forecast to cross as a Category 1 storm, the weakest in the agency’s classification system.

Cyclone Jasper brought heavy rain and flooding to Queensland’s far north after crossing the coast in December, swamping sugar crops and inundating homes. Kirrily hit the state more than a month later in a more populated area, but the damage wasn’t as vast, despite making landfall as a Category 3 storm.

As Lincoln moves inland, the system is expected to weaken and begin moving west across central Northern Territory over the weekend and then over northern Western Australia, bringing heavy rain, according to the bureau. There is a moderate risk it could reform into a cyclone on Thursday, the agency said.