Australia Weather News

Tropical Cyclone Ann is now expected to cross the Far North Queensland coast as a category one system on Wednesday morning, but is not expected to cause extensive damage.

A cyclone warning has been issued for Cape Tribulation to Coenas the late-season cyclone continues to track west toward the coast across the Coral Sea.

A cyclone watch is in place for areas north of Coen.

Ann intensified to a category two system on Sunday night, but was downgraded to category one on Monday afternoon.

It had previously been expected to cross the coast as a tropical low, but the difference in impact was not expected to be significant.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is predicting it will likely make landfall near Coen as a category one cyclone before quickly weakening to a tropical low.

Areas between Coen and Cape Tribulation can expect wind gusts up to 100 kilometres per hour early on Wednesday morningand heavy rain and flash flooding is likely between the Lockhart River and Ingham.

A storm tide could occur between Lockhart River and Cape Tribulation, with large waves possibly causing some minor flooding along the foreshore.

A Flood Watch has also been issued for between Cooktown and Ingham.

Senior forecaster Rick Threlfall said the system would likely remain at a category one.

"Cyclones tend to develop most at night time ... it could just get back to category two status, there's a few things possibly going against that sort of dry air coming across the cyclone, but I couldn't rule it out altogether," he said.

Mr Threlfall said the system would likely fizzle out once it hit Queensland.

"Crossing the Cape will sort of disrupt the system quite a bit and then as it moves out into the Gulf the conditions aren't quite as favourable for development," he said.

Earlier, BOM meteorologist Mr Knepp said while cyclones at this time of the year were uncommon, they are not unprecedented.

"We have probably one tropical cyclone every six or seven years in May ... 1989 was the last time we had a May crossing onto the coast, and that was again on the peninsula," he said.