CANBERRA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Residents of Australia's Northern Territory (NT) have been warned to prepare for a possible category five tropical cyclone.
Gabriel Brenescu, a Bureau of Meteorology forecaster, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that Tropical Cyclone Trevor, which is currently over the Gulf of Carpentaria, will intensify as it makes landfall on the NT's east coast over the next two to three days.
"We have it at category two back early in the morning, 9:00 a.m. or so, and then increasing or strengthening to upper categories, three, four, even a category five is possible," he told the ABC on Thursday.
"Once in the open waters the system will expand, it will grow in size."
Authorities in the NT began mass evacuations of remote communities on the east coast on Wednesday.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, winds in a category five cyclone exceed 280 km per hour, causing severe and extensive damage.
In March of 2018, Tropical Cyclone Marcus became the territory's worst tropical cyclone since 1974, causing damages amounting to about 85 million Australian dollars (60.5 million U.S. dollars).
