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Australian Ski resorts going under cover

Brett Dutschke, Thursday July 2, 2015 - 13:02 AEST

Australia's ski resorts are finally becoming covered by fresh, natural snow, a result of the first decent cold blast in a few weeks.

The snow has generally been light so far, bringing up to about five centimetres overnight and this morning, heaviest at Victorian resorts.

By tonight, when the cold front weakens and loses its moisture we should have widespread two-to-seven centimetres of natural snow cover, possibly about 10cm at Mt Baw Baw. This is not much but is promising given that most of it will still be there when the next snow-bearing system arrives, at least on the higher slopes where it should stay below freezing.

The next round of fresh snow looks like arriving next Monday/Tuesday, although similar to today, is unlikely to be much, up to about seven centimetres, most of it in Victoria. Mt Buller, Mt Hotham and Falls Creek may have about 10cm of cover by mid-next week.

While this is certainly nothing to rave about, and much less than the same time last year, it can be taken as a promising sign of better falls to come.

Most computer forecasting models indicate significant potential for decent snowfalls from the following weekend. The weather pattern is becoming faster moving and the polar jetstream is shifting further north, encouraging fronts to become more frequent and stronger.

The early tip is we should see widespread 15-to-30cm cover on the ground, the highest for the season so far and enough for a bit of fun.

Whilst there is potential for more than 50cm there is a long way to go to catch up to last winter's 100-150cm across the major resorts which lasted from mid-July to mid-August.

- Weatherzone

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