Bureau Keeps An Eye On Coral Sea Tropical Cyclone

Talk of Cyclone Freddy creating dangerous surf conditions along the Queensland and New South Wales coastlines may have been premature, due to the name being snapped up by a low off Western Australia.

Tropical Cyclone Freddy formed around 700 kilometres north of Broome on Monday night, and while it is expected to intensify into a Severe Category Three system, it is not expected to impact the mainland.

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Back to the Coral Sea though, and the tropical low hovering about 780 kilometres north-east of Willis Island and 1,230 kilometres north-east of Mackay is expected to reach cyclone strength by Thursday.

While it is expected to move towards the coast for now, models indicate it will slip away back to the south-east meaning the only impact for the mainland will be dangerous surf conditions.

This may be good news for Australia but it's a different story for New Zealand.

Some models suggest the remains of the system could bring severe weather to the North Island, which continues to mop up after recent record-breaking rains.

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