Christmas Eve is firming up as the time a cyclone is likely to form off Australia's northern coast, with its winds hitting the mainland soon afterwards.
The low is about 100 kilometres from the Australian mainland, and is increasingly looking like it will become a cyclone.
Michael Foley from the Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Darwin says their latest advice is that it will be most likely early Saturday, though there's still some risk it could develop faster and be a cyclone tomorrow.
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Christmas Eve will be the 37th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy, which started out as a tropical low that formed on December 20, 1974 and gradually intensified before heading away from the coast.
