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Dud Aussie snow season ends with a whimper

Anthony Sharwood, Wednesday September 25, 2024 - 13:22 AEST

It's official: the Australian snow season has finally fizzled out, almost two weeks ahead of the traditional closure at the end of the first weekend in October.

In what was a poor season after record August warmth across the country, most of Australia's eight mainland downhill ski resorts had closed by mid-September or even earlier.

Australia's largest resort Perisher was the exception, with 10 lifts still running last weekend, mostly on slopes bolstered by the remnants of early-season snowmaking.

But with just two lifts in operation this Wednesday, September 25, and with strong winds, mild temperatures and heavy rain falling, Perisher announced that today would be the end.

Image: Perisher’s Front Valley slope on the morning of September 25, the last day of lift operations for 2024. Source: Steve Smith via ski.com.au.

"We have made this difficult decision based on current conditions and in the interest of guest and staff safety, as well as with the best interests of our environment in mind," the resort said in a statement.

"While the forecast indicates snowfall overnight, with strong winds, torrential rain, and spring temperatures forecasted today, we will be unable to preserve what’s left of the snowpack despite the best efforts of our grooming team."

Perisher is right about the snowfall coming tonight. Cold air associated with a cold front will link up with an upper-level low pressure system, with snow falling to relatively low levels into Thursday.

Image: Synoptic chart for Thursday, September 26, 2024.

Overall, the 2024 Australian snow season was very disappointing.

The peak season depth at Snowy Hydro’s official measuring site at Spencers Creek in NSW reached 124.6 cm on July 30.

That was a reasonable depth for that time of year, and many people were hoping that 2024 would "do a 1992" – a season in which big snowfalls came late in the season after a moderate beginning.

Image: Graph comparing 1992 (light blue) with 2024 (dark blue). Source: Snowy Hydro.

Sadly, this year ended up more like a repeat of the previous season. August was very warm and dry in 2023 and it was even warmer in 2024. In fact, August 2024 was Australia's warmest winter month on record by a huge margin.

Image: To the dismay of all snow lovers, 2024 (dark blue line) turned out even worse than the dud 2023 season (light blue). Source: Snowy Hydro.

Aussie snow lovers will be hoping we don’t see a "three-peat" of poor seasons in 2025.

- Weatherzone

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