Snow season well and truly back on track
Craig McIntosh,
Thursday July 28, 2016 - 12:38 AEST
So far this snow season could be described as a yo-yo, it's up and down yet always fun. Right now, it's definitely on the up.
Starting slow, the season took a couple of weeks before we saw substantial snowfall. There was a period of relative quiet to start July, until Monday 11th, when one of the biggest storms in years dumped up to 70cm of snow in total blizzard conditions over New South Wales, Victorian and Tasmanian resorts.
Then came near-record warmth and some unbelievable amounts of rain. NSW resorts lost a lot of snow with 50-150mm of rain falling instead. Victorian resorts were lucky enough to only get 50-60mm of rain that day, however there was less snow than NSW so some places literally had to start again. Tasmanian resorts copped around 20mm of rain that day, but like their northern neighbours, it did plenty of damage to the snowpack.
The yo-yo season bounced back with bang this past week as five cold fronts in five days blew away the warmth and left up to 90cm of fresh powder in their wake. The snowpack is now the highest it has been all winter, ranging from 20-30cm in Tasmania, over a metre for some Victorian resorts and nudging a metre-and-a-half in NSW.
Friday and the weekend is looking good with some light falls daily, however, as a yo-yo does, the good conditions will drop temporarily on Monday with rain periods across the Alps. Fortunately, this is a prelude to another good dump of snow from Tuesday into Wednesday as another cold front blasts its way across southeastern Australia, likely dropping 30-60cm as it goes.
The yo-yo season looks to have a stable week from then on, with cold air and a good chance of light snowfalls occurring well into August.
- Weatherzone
© Weatherzone
2016