A tropical cyclone is likely to form to the north of Western Australia's Kimberley district during the next 24 hours.

A tropical low over the Timor Sea is expected to become a tropical cyclone on Friday night or Saturday morning. The system will be named Wallace, becoming the eighth tropical cyclone in Australian waters so far this season.

Image: Satellite imagey showing the tropical low over the Arafura Sea on Friday.

The impending cyclone should pass to the north of the Kimberley over the weekend, moving towards the west-southwest roughly parallel to the coast.

While the system is expected to remain at least 200km offshore during the next few days, gales may affect the Kimberley coast during the weekend.

Looking ahead, some computer models suggest the tropical cyclone could approach the Pilbara coast during the middle of next week. However, there is quite a bit of uncertainty regarding the system's movement from Monday onwards.

People living in the Kimberley and Pilbara should closely monitor the latest cyclone advisories during the next few days.

This system comes just two weeks after Severe Tropical Cyclone Veronica brought close to half a metre of rain to the Pilbara coast in just three days.

Impressively, large algal blooms formed off the Pilbara coast during the days following Cyclone Veronica's arrival. These blooms were so big they could be seen from space.