A cyclone warning has been issued for Darwin – Cyclone Monica looks
like she’ll cross the coast somewhere to the northeast of the city,
with predictions she’ll weaken before she gets here on Tuesday. “It’s
coming our way. That’s what it boils down to,” says senior Weather
Bureau forecaster Graeme King. Here’s what the blogs are saying:

• Monica should slowly weaken before she gets to Darwin, since much
  of the circulation will be over land, and the eye will have to cross
  land as well. Still, Monica could still be a formidable Category 3 or 4
  hurricane by then, and a direct hit on Darwin would likely cause severe
  damage. –Jeffs Weather

• Monica is currently a category 5 with winds 100 kph stronger than
  that at 350kph. Darwin houses are required to be designed to withstand
  a strong category 4 cyclone, but a lot would sustain major damage if
  Monica retains its present strength and hits Darwin squarely. – Club Troppo
  
• Australians must feel like residents of hurricane alley in the
  Atlantic did last year, when three of the six strongest hurricanes on
  record occurred, causing the most damage ever–what’s going on with the
  weather? However, be reminded that the Northern Hemisphere Pacific
  Ocean had a very below-normal tropical cyclone season last year, and
  the Indian Ocean also had below normal activity. – Wunderground
  
• Well we’re looking a lot better with this forecast than we were
  (see maps) , we should only get some 150 km/h winds about midday at
  current predictions which will be the edge of the cyclone. We’re
  getting fairly concerned about the storm surge though, high tide is
  about 2pm – when the expected 3m surge comes we’ll flood as the island
  is largely below sea level, once it clears the 3m high lip at waters
  edge it’ll fill up pretty quick down here. – Mikblog

• This situation continue to deteriorate along the north coast of
  Australia. It is hard to imagine a worse situation in this area as
  Australian cyclones almost never reach this strength. Monica is
  currently much stronger than 1974’s Cyclone Tracy which is the benchmark storm for the area. As far as I can tell, Monica may be the most intense cyclone to ever impact the region
  or even Australia. However, records are hard to find. After striking
  Queensland a few days ago, Monica has crossed Gulf of Carpentaria and
  is strafing the coast of the Northern Territory. – The Storm Track