Christmas in July has finally arrived for ski resorts this weekend as the first widespread snowfall of the season blankets parts of Australia’s south-east, bringing more than 50cm falls in popular tourist destinations.
David Clark, destination marketing manager for Mt Buller and Mt Stirling ski lifts, said the snow “just keeps coming”.
“It’s been brilliant, it started snowing on Friday night and hasn’t stopped,” he said. “Now’s the time to come – it’s the best conditions we’ve seen so far.”
The resort town received 22cm of snow on Saturday morning, with an additional 15cm accumulating throughout the day – and more forecast.
“It was a slow start in June but it’s such a relief to have these big snowfalls and proper cold fronts coming through, setting us up for rest of the season,” Clark said.
“We’re guaranteed to have snow now to October.”
Mount Hotham received 31cm of snowfall in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, with the resort at full capacity and closed to day visitors. Further north, Thredbo was blanketed in 27cm of snow overnight, taking its seven-day snowfall count to 43cm.
“The entire mountain and village have been covered in a thick blanket of fresh white snow, creating magical wintry scenes,” a spokesperson said.
“The snowstorm rolled in yesterday evening, bringing heavy snowfall, blizzard conditions and strong winds.
“Experts forecast that this low-pressure system could bring another 50cm over the next 10 days.”
Nearby, Perisher was hit with 25cm of snow overnight, with a further 80cm forecast on Saturday, with freezing temperatures recorded as low as 800m, according to Weatherzone.
A spokesperson from Vail Resorts said the quickly moving cold front was expected to bring the “most significant snowfall of the year”.
Falls Creek in north-east Victoria received a whopping 45cm of snowfall in just 24 hours, including 33cm of fresh snow on Friday evening. Its seven day total was well over 70cm.
The head of marketing and visitor experience at Falls Creek Alpine Resort, Sarah Watt, said car parking capacity had been increased this season but when a big storm hit, they filled quickly. She urged guests to pre-book before leaving home to avoid disappointment.
The cold front moving through South Australia into Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland had brought rain and record low temperatures along with snow and blizzard conditions, with more expected to come.
Forecasters Mountain Watch anticipated 82cm of snow over the next seven days, while Snowatch predicted 78cm for the next fortnight.
Angus Hines of the Bureau of Meteorology said it was a “very wintry outbreak” of weather across the south-east, attributed to snowfall and wind.
“There’s been another good top up [of snow] … given they had a nice dump three or four days ago,” he said.
Hines said there was about 30cm of snow in widespread higher parts of mountains in Victoria and New South Wales on Friday evening, with an additional 20cm expected on average over the next day, bringing high peaks of half a metre.
He said there hadn’t yet been snow reaching low levels as occurred last week in a number of places across NSW up to the Queensland border, but low lying communities in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales, including the tablelands, could receive some snowfall in coming days.
It came amid widespread damaging wind warnings across Australia, stretching from southern parts of South Australia through exposed parts of Victoria and alpine and eastern NSW.
A severe weather warning was in place for Sydney due to the strengthening winds, bringing blizzard-like conditions to areas with snowfall. At Mt Buller, gusts of up to 100km/h were reported on the upper mountain overnight, with conditions calming into Saturday.
Hines said some areas in Queensland had received record low temperatures overnight, including Winton, which was -0.6 on Saturday morning – a record in 22 years of data – and Longreach, which dropped to 0.7 – the coldest temperature in three years.
The cold front was expected to pass across the next two to three days, however with wind chill temperatures were expected to “feel cooler than it looks like”.
Meanwhile, Clark was spending Saturday watching ecstatic young children in Mt Buller’s “magic forest” learn to ski in “super thick fresh powder snow”.
“It’s a great vibe … they were all doing it with smiles and loving it,” he said.
“We’ve got eight lifts operating and just announced we’re opening another three tomorrow which is great news. I’m just looking forward to seeing ski and snowboarders back on the slopes.”
• This article was amended on 22 July 2024. Mount Hotham received 31cm of snowfall in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, not 31cm of rainfall as stated in an earlier version.
