Two tropical lows are bringing a “huge” amount of rain to northern Australia, with a wet weekend ahead.

A cyclone threat remains for north Queensland from the weather systems lying off Cairns and the Gulf of Carpentaria, which have already brought days of torrential rain.

Remarkably, there are another two tropical lows off Western Australia’s north coast, one with the potential to form a cyclone by Sunday.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury warned it would be a very wet end to the week for the north tropical coast stretching up to Cape York and over to the Gulf country.

The area between Mackay and Cairns is expected to be hit on Friday by severe thunderstorms with locally heavy falls.

“These areas have already seen a huge amount of rain so far this week, and additional rainfall is likely to lead to further flash flooding, inundation of roads, leading to lengthy detours, as well as damage to some property and vegetation,” Bradbury said on Friday.

Rain is expected to ramp up between Cairns and Bowen from Friday night, with the risk of life-threatening flash flooding and damaging winds.

“This risk will continue into the weekend with high rainfall amounts of several 100 millimetres, likely on a daily basis,” Bradbury said.

It follows up to 150 millimetres of rain around Bowen, Mackay and on the Daintree coast in the 24 hours to Friday morning – with even heavier downpours in some areas.

“It was certainly a wet 24 hours, but not quite as wet as what we saw earlier in the week,” Bradbury said.

Upper Finch Hatton – inland from Mackay – has had 181 millimetres, while on the Daintree coast got 179 millimetres in the past 24 hours.

In the past week, up to 939 millimetres of rain has fallen at Mount Sophia and 905 millimetres at Clyde Road, both near Cairns. Other locations have had more than 600 millimetres.

Flood watches have been activated for rivers from Cairns to Townsville.

The tropical low off the coast of Cairns is not expected to move much on Friday or the weekend, and is a low chance of becoming a cyclone.

The second system over the Gulf is forecast to move south-west early next week. It has a low chance of becoming a cyclone from Saturday.

“We need to remember that even without tropical cyclone intensity, any low-pressure systems in the tropics are likely to lead to widespread heavy rain, an increased flood risk, strong and gusty winds and an elevated sea state,” Bradbury said.

Only one of the two systems off WA’s north-west coast is forecast to intensify by the weekend, but it was not expected to directly affect coastal or island communities, the bureau said.

-AAP