Hurricane update - 1 February

Cyclone Dora is still spinning away in the Indian Ocean, far from land.
The people around the Gulf of Carpentaria are having an unwelcome visitor, in the shape of a developing tropical cyclone. I relay the detailed warning:

TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 6
Issued by the BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, DARWIN
at 8:00 pm CST [8:30 pm EST] Thursday 1 February 2007

A CYCLONE WARNING continues for coastal and island communities from Nhulunbuy to Numbulwar, including Groote Eylandt.

A CYCLONE WATCH continues for coastal and island communities from Numbulwar to Weipa, in Queensland, including Mornington Island.

At 6:30 pm CST [7:00 pm EST] a TROPICAL LOW
centred in the Arafura Sea about 130 kilometres east of Nhulunbuy and 270 kilometres northeast of Alyangula moving south at 16 kilometres per hour.

The low is forecast to continue moving south into the Gulf of Carpentaria on Friday and develop into a tropical cyclone, but is not expected to cross the coast in the next 24 hours.

GALES with gusts to 120 kilometres per hour are expected to develop on Groote Eylandt during Friday. GALES may extend to the mainland coast between Nhulunbuy and Numbulwar later on Friday or during Saturday as the developing cyclone approaches the coast.

HEAVY RAIN is expected to cause flooding in the Arnhem region during Friday night and Saturday, extending into the Roper-McArthur region later.