Australia's government issued a cyclone warning for coastal and island communities of northern Queensland, saying they should expect gales and possible flooding from higher-than-normal seas, Bloomberg reported.
Tropical Cyclone Charlotte has formed in the southeastern Gulf of Carpentaria and is strengthening as it moves east, the Canberra-based Bureau of Meterology said on its Web site. The center of the storm is forecast to reach the coast later today.
Australia's north, the location of uranium, alumina and liquefied natural gas plants, may have a "slightly more active" than average cyclone season this year, the bureau said in October. Last January, Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. stopped work at its Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory due to Tropical Cyclone Helen. Tropical Cyclone Monica closed uranium and alumina output in April 2006.
In an average year, two or three cyclones form in Australia's northern region, though as many as five have formed in a single season since records began, according to the bureau.