Mount Hotham says ‘the wait is over’ and Perisher is ‘feeling like winter again’ as fresh snow blankets alpine slopes
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An overnight cold front has swept across south-east Australia, bringing significant snowfall to much of the high country after a largely snowless start to winter.
Almost 30cm of snow was reported on Friday in areas including Thredbo and Perisher in New South Wales and Mount Hotham in Victoria.
Casey McCarthy from the Bureau of Meteorology said snow showers were expected to continue through Friday across the Victorian Alps and the Snowy Mountains in NSW.
“[It] could pick up another 10 to 20 centimetres … more likely to towards upper slopes.”
The weather event comes after large parts of the country’s east coast recorded some of the warmest starts to winter.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, “the atmosphere has been too warm to allow snow to fall anywhere but the very highest peaks”.
Andrew Watkins, a climatologist and Climate Council expert, said that the delay to the beginning of winter has been a trend that started in “the middle of last century”, associated with El Niño and other climate change factors.
“We’ve already seen about a 30% decline in the snow depth, but also similar declines in the length of the snow season as well,” the Monash University adjunct professor said. “We’re also expecting a further 30% decline from where we are now through to the middle of this century.”
Watkins said this ski season “could be as much as three weeks shorter than what we’ve seen in the past”.
Snow resorts across the east-coast have celebrated the shift.
Mount Hotham reported 30cm of fresh snow in 48 hours, and said it was “still coming down” on Friday. The ski resort added that it “couldn’t be more stoked” to see the site “blanketed in white and snow guns firing across the resort again”.
“The wait is over … snow has returned.”
Perisher ski resort said Thursday night delivered “the real treat”. The site reported 20cm of snow and said it was “finally looking, and feeling, like winter again”.
“For a couple of weeks there, we were starting to wonder where winter had got to. Then, almost as if Perisher had been listening to everyone’s hopes, the snow found its way back,” it said.
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Neighbouring Thredbo reported 28cm of total snowfall, adding that the “team have hit the ground running” and taken the opportunity to run snowmaking machines.
In an update to its site, Weatherzone said the change came “just in time for the school holidays”, adding that “up until [Friday], mainland Australia’s ski resorts have been able to open only the most basic beginner slopes on thin ribbons of snowmaking snow”.
Watkins said compounding factors including tropical weather events and global heating are reducing the chances of snow and increasing the chance of rain.
“Not only does rain not bring snow, but it actually kills the snow that’s already there, so it’s a double whammy,” Watkins said. “Aussies who do like skiing … should expect their winter plans to be impacted going forward with these shorter seasons.”
He said these factors are hurting the skiing industry.
The 56-year-old, who has been an avid skier for more than 40 years, has already bought season tickets for the family’s school holiday visit next week, but said the unpredictability of the winter seasons have made him wary.
“I ski with both my daughters, the youngest one is 16,” Watkins said. “I sit on the lift with her and cross my fingers, and hope that she gets to experience a lifetime of skiing like I have, and gets to see these beautiful places in all their glory throughout her life.
“We’ve got to reduce our emissions. It’s the only real way, for the long term, for my daughter and her kids to be able to ski on a regular basis as well. Luckily, some of our resorts are just high enough to get us through my lifetime and maybe hers, but the lower resorts are the ones that have already suffered a lot.”
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