Damage from high winds, storm surge and flooding is feared as Tropical Cyclone Veronica today began to approach the Pilbara coast in northern WA.

While there is uncertainty about the cyclone’s future movements, meteorologists say it could reach Karratha by the weekend. Currently a category 1 system, it could intensify to category 4 by the time it makes landfall.

“Tropical Cyclone Veronica is likely to approach the coast as an intense, slow-moving system,” the Bureau of Meteorology says. “The passage of a slow-moving intense system is likely to lead to significant impacts from wind, storm surge and flooding.”

Karratha is roughly halfway between Broome and Exmouth, and the area is known in the Pilbara region as “cyclone alley”. It is considered the most cyclone-prone area in the world. About 21,000 people live in Karratha, which is the centre of major resources projects.

In Queensland, Tropical Cyclone Trevor made landfall as a category three system on the eastern coast of Cape York Peninsula, near Lockhart River last night.

Lockhart River Airport was hit by 302mm of rain in 24 hours, its heaviest daily total in eight years. The site also registered wind gusts up to 133km/h.

Communities in Lockhart River and Coen were left without power.

The system has weakened to category 1 and is likely to move away from Cape York and re-intensify as it moves over warm water in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

It could become a category 4 by the weekend as it nears the Gulf's sparsely populated southwestern coast, where it is expected to make a second landfall.