The first major snowfall of the year is expected in the Snowy Mountains early next week.
Key points:
- Between 20 and 50 cm of snow are expected at the alpine resorts on Monday and Tuesday
- The snow arrives before the start of the ski season on June 11th
- The last two ski seasons have been severely affected by the confinement of COVID-19
The time could not be better for the alpine resorts preparing for the start of the ski season on June 11th.
“They’re real Goldilocks stuff,” Rhylla Morgan of the Buller Ski lifts on the Victorian ski slopes said.
“We don’t want snow too early. We don’t want it to be too late. We need the right amount of moisture and these temperatures to line up at the right time. And it looks like we’re doing it,” he said.
Skiers will be eager to climb the slopes after the confinements prevented many from enjoying the sport for the past two winters. (Supplied)
Skiing in Australia can be a stressful experience. A slight change in weather can turn the perfection of dry, fluffy white snow into rain, mud, and lovelessness.
But for now, the weather stars appear to be aligning, according to Jonathan Howe of the Bureau of Meteorology.
“We’re looking at 20 to 50 inches of snow, with heavier snow in the south-east of New South Wales, where you can see pretty healthy totals,” he said.
“Only now do we dare to get excited”
Alpine companies will welcome the favorable forecast after suffering two years of COVID-related blockades.
“People were making it hard. They were definitely on the verge of whether or not people left the business,” said Reggae Elliss, a Thredbo retailer and publisher of mountainwatch.com.
“Last year we were excited about the season, and then Sydney got into that blockade at the start of the school holidays and employment here in the snowy mountains dropped from 100% to 30%,” he added.
Thredbo skier Reggae Elliss expects mountain communities to recover after two years of confinement. (Provided by: Reggae Elliss)
But with the snow on the road, people in the mountains were starting to get excited, according to Rhylla Morgan.
“The idea that we can think about going skiing, having lunch with friends and doing fun things, just because it’s fun, and it’s in a beautiful place, is extraordinary and more exciting than normal for the start of a snow season. “she said.
Snow will arrive with wild weather on Monday and Tuesday, with stormy conditions and very strong winds. Conditions are expected to drop on Wednesday, before another front arrives next weekend.
Thredbo Village in 2021. (Provided by: Thredbo Resort)
What kind of ski season are we in?
Jonathan Howe said the dominant climate engine this winter would be the Indian Ocean dipole or IOD, which can play the role of rich gold, bringing the moisture needed for snowfall from the Indian Ocean to ski slopes.
But IOD can also play the role of the three bears, carrying the rain.
“IOD can go either way. It raises the cloud, which can also raise the temperature,” Jonathan Howe said.
“But we really need it to be right. We need this tropical humidity to come in as rain, combined with these cold temperatures to provide the perfect conditions for the snow. And that’s what we’re going to see this week.”
A negative IOD often results in more rainfall than the average in South East Australia. (Supplied by: BOM)
Why are Australian ski seasons so fickle?
According to Jonathan Howe of the Meteorological Office, the ski slopes in Australia are in the wrong place.
“The ski slopes are quite north to the equator, if you think about it. And our mountains aren’t that high either,” he said.
“But we’re also surrounded by water. We’re an island. In South Australia there’s an ocean and an ocean really doesn’t get below zero in terms of sea surface temperatures.”
“So we rely a lot on the cold air masses that come from Antarctica, and they are marked by the warm air that comes in. So we tend to have a more humid and uneven type of snow.”
“In addition, with the warming of the climate, the depth of the snow has generally been declining over the years in Victoria and New South Wales.”
Australia’s longest snow record at Spencers Creek shows a slight downward trend in maximum snow depth. (Bureau of Meteorology)
And yet …
Despite all the reasons why it shouldn’t snow in Australia, it does in abundance, and it will do so again next week, in dusty, dusty white mountains.
And once again, Australians will celebrate the modest miracle of skiing and snowboarding on the flattest, driest continent on Earth.
The Australian ski season begins on June 11th. (Provided by: Chris Hocking)
Posted 10 hours, 10 hours ago, Saturday, May 28, 2022 at 1:03 AM, updated 6 hours ago, 6 hours ago, Saturday, May 28, 2022 at 5:38 AM