Severe Tropical Cyclone Trevor is expected to make landfall near Lockhart River in far north Queensland later today.

Trevor became a tropical cyclone on Monday morning just under 300km to the east of Queensland's northeastern tropical coast. Just 24 hours later, the system has strengthened into a category three severe tropical cyclone and is now bearing down on Cape York Peninsula.

Image: Tuesday morning's sunrise revelas Severe Tropical Cyclone Trevor to the east of Cape York Peninsula.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Trevor was located at 120km to the east of Lockhart River at 7am AEST on Tuesday. The system is moving west and should make landfall somewhere near Lockhart River late on Tuesday afternoon or evening.

Trevor will continue to intensify during Tuesday as it approaches the coast and could be a strong category three, or possibly a low end category four tropical cyclone when it reaches the coast.

A cyclone of this strength is capable of producing very destructive wind gusts in excess of 200km/h near its core. These winds would be capable of toppling caravans and causing significant structural damage to buildings.

In addition to wind, Severe Tropical Cyclone Trevor is likely to cause heavy rain and a storm surge, leading to flash flooding, coastal inundation and beach erosion.

While Cyclone Trevor didn't exist two days ago, it's now strong enough to cause a very dangerous weather event in far north Queensland.

Trevor will lose some strength as it traverses Cape York Peninsula during Tuesday night and Wednesday, although it's likely to re-intensify over the Gulf of Carpentaria from Thursday.

The system's movement towards the end of this week becomes more difficult to predict. However, a number of computer models suggest that Trevor could make a second landfall over the southern or western coasts of the Gulf of Carpentaria this weekend.