Northern Queensland on cyclone watch for Sunday

THE first cyclone of the season could form off the far north Queensland coast on Sunday.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Vinord Annand said a tropical low was developing in an active monsoonal trough in the Coral Sea.

“There’s a lot of cloud and rain… and this low has just embedded in that monsoonal trough,” he said.

“At this stage we’re saying by Sunday it has a more than 50 per cent chance of becoming a cyclone, but given the history of these kinds of system it could take more than a couple of days.”

Mr Annand said if it did form, the system would become Tropical Cyclone Lam.