Weather News

Snowmaker's delight during spell of freezing nights

Ben Domensino, Wednesday June 26, 2019 - 10:04 AEST

Parts of Australia's alpine region just had their coldest run of nights in four years, providing ideal conditions for artificial snowmaking.

A slow-moving ridge of high pressure over southeastern Australia caused a prolonged run of freezing nights in the alps during the last week.

Wednesday morning's minimum temperature of minus 6.9 degrees at Perisher Valley was their eighth consecutive morning below minus four degrees.

This has been Perisher Valley's longest spell of mornings below minus four degrees since 2015. If the mercury reaches the forecast low of minus four on Thursday, this will be Perisher's equal longest spell of nights this cold since 2010.

While the recent run of cold nights has allowed ski resorts to pump out plenty of artificial snow, the natural snow depth hasn't benefited away from the ski slopes.

Image: Atrificial snowmakig in full swing at Perisher Resort on Wednesday morning. Image: Perisher

According to Mt Hotham's website, the natural snow depth was 16cm on June 26th, down from 57cm earlier in the month.

A cold front will bring rain then snow to the Australian alps this weekend. Visit https://www.weatherzone.com.au/snow/ for the latest snow forecasts.

- Weatherzone

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