As of early Thursday morning, EST, Tropical Cyclone Oma is located about 510 miles northeast of Brisbane, Australia. Oma is moving to the south-southwest at 8 mph. Maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph.

Oma will move to the south or southwest over open water for at least the next 24-48 hours. Little change in strength is expected during that time. The storm is then expected to slow to a crawl and eventually start moving to the north and northwest by the end of the weekend.

There continues to be some uncertainty in the longer-range track of Oma. It continues to look likely that Oma will bring high surf and potentially heavy showers and gusty winds to coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales by the weekend. The most likely spot to get rain and wind from Oma will be in the southeastern corner of Queensland near Brisbane. A landfall is not out of the question, but impacts are possible even without a direct landfall.

After getting close to Australia, the storm is expected to drift northward through the Coral Sea later next week.

By AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Thompson