Severe Tropical Cyclone Megan has formed in the Gulf of Carpentaria and is likely to cross the NT coastline later today, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

Megan’s “very destructive core”, with wind gusts up to 200 km/h, was impacting the Sir Edward Pellew Group of islands this morning, with coastal impacts between Bing Bong in the NT and the Queensland border set to increase and continue today. 

The cyclone, which has reached category 3 intensity, was this morning more than 120 kilometres northeast of Borroloola, an NT town with about 800 residents that’s about 50 kilometres from the coast on the McArthur River. 

The bureau said in a 6:30am (Australian Central Standard Time) update that the cyclone is moving slowly south and is expected to cross the southwestern Gulf of Carpentaria coast in the vicinity of the Sir Edward Pellew Group of islands later today. 

Once over land, Megan will weaken and track west through the Northern Territory as a tropical low. 

“Heavy to locally intense rainfall is likely about the southwestern Gulf of Carpentaria coast during today and may even occur about parts of the Gulf Country in Queensland,” the bureau says. 

“Heavy rainfall will extend to adjacent inland areas in the Carpentaria forecast district as the system crosses the coast and should persist into Tuesday.” 

In the Indian Ocean, a tropical low that’s located more than 500 km northwest from Karratha is not expected to have direct impacts on WA’s Pilbara coast. 

A track map shows the low made a u-turn on the weekend and is heading slowly in a westerly direction. The bureau says it may reach cyclone intensity later in the week, but would be well away from the WA coastline at that time.