Tropical Cyclone Maila: Experts struggle to pinpoint landfall as huge weather front bears down on Aussie Coast

Tropical Cyclone Maila is gathering force and momentum off the coast of Australia, but experts are struggling to pinpoint a landfall zone and time as the massive weather front proves unpredictable.

Alerts have been issued for vast areas of Far North Queensland as the huge low-pressure system strengthens over the Solomon Sea before it is expected to drift out toward the Coral Sea.

Forecasters are scrambling to zero in on the time and areas likely to be hardest hit in the coming days as the cyclone bears down on Australia.

“There is currently a lot of uncertainty amongst weather models on whether a tropical cyclone could be impacting Queensland through the next seven to 10 days,” Sky News meteorologist Tamsin Green said.

“There is the potential of this system starting to inch farther west towards Queensland’s coast towards the end of this week into next weekend.”

The huge weather front is proving very difficult to read with several scenarios now in play, including the system remaining offshore or changing path and landing in the Northern Territory, further west or heading east down the coast.

“It could be staying towards the west and skirting up towards the north of the Cape York Peninsula, staying out at sea,” Ms Green said.

“Or, it could make an NT landfall, or even be skirting towards the east, and just staying out in the Coral Sea.

“So, certainly this is one to watch out for as a lot could change over the next few days.”

The BOM is reporting that TC Maila is producing winds of around 120 km/h with wind gusts up to 165 km/h and that the weather front is around 590 kilometres west of the Solomon Islands, and around 820 kilometres east of Papua New Guinea.

The Papua New Guinea National Weather Service say that a tropical cyclone Maila category 3 warning is current for the Milne Bay Province, especially the coastal and island communities of: Woodlark, Sudest, Misima, Rossel Islands, including Bougainville.

A second cyclone in the pacific islands region has also been identified with the Fiji Meteorological Service monitoring Tropical Cyclone Vaianu, which is currently a category one system located to the north of Fiji.

The FMS said current winds near the centre of TC Vaianu are around 74km/h and expected are expected to strengthen further to 92km/h later today, and up to 111km/h by tomorrow.