By Pete ‘The Frog’ Taylor
Snow Forecaster & Owner
snowatch.com.au

Snowatch® Early Season Outlook 2025

It is that time again when we look towards the new snow season after two of the worst seasons on record. Season 2024 will go down as once of the worse ones. Season 2023’s snow depth was only 7cm more, so it’s been two years of very ordinary snow. These depths are not the worst recorded, with 2006 only reaching 85cm, 1982-91cm and 1993 only got to 112cm. This shows that we have had bad seasons before and come back. For those that think it’s all over and we will never see deep snow again, remember that 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022 all reached well over 2m in snow depth at Spencer’s Creek and 2021 was just below 2m.

How is early 2025 looking?

To come.

What usually happens this time of year?

Usually during May and June we see a lot of large dominating blocking high pressure systems revolving around the southern hemisphere bringing extended periods of dry weather with most potential snow bearing cold fronts being forced south under the mainland. Any snowfalls we see before June usually melts quite quickly, although it can help freeze the ground which helps the snow makers to create a base layer of snow.

So, when will it snow?

Looking at the current charts the next week looks quite mild and warm with temps dropping on the 4^th. There is a chance of light snow falling around the 5^th to 6^th of May. It won’t last long on the ground but will more than likely increase the anxiety levels for the coming season.

Looking a bit further ahead I see temps milder than usual and quite a lot of moisture around which won’t be good for potential snow making leading into the season opening on June 11.

If I had to throw out some dates for potential for snow, I’d say around the 12^th-13^th of May and then a follow up system around the 21st-23rd of May.

In summary

In Summary I see a slow start to the season with limited snow making opportunities and unfortunately not a lot of natural snow. I think this pattern will remain until La Nina weakens more which probably won’t happen until July sometime. As this happens the likelihood of good consistent snowfalls will, and I think the back end of the season from mid-July to September will be quite decent.

All it takes for the season to get into full swing is a couple of decent falls so there is nothing to say an early dump can’t change things before July.

The daily Snowatch® forecasts begin on Monday 2nd May and as per usual you will see a 15 day forecast for each resort as well as a long range outlook for the next month pin pointing any future snowfalls to help in planning your next snow trips.

About Snowatch®

Snowatch.com.au is Australia’s longest running dedicated snow forecasting website. Owned and operated by Pete ‘The Frog’ Taylor it is well known for pinpointing snow bearing systems up to four weeks out. Unlike other weather sites Snowatch® does not rely on automated algorithms to pump out snowfall predictions. Pete ‘The Frog’ is up early 7 days a week from May 1^st through to closing weekend in October studying the charts and data before manually inputting forecasts for each resort for the next 15 days as well as adding his thoughts on the long rang outlook. Pete ‘The Frog’ also helps out fellow Snowatcher’s answering emails and facebook messages in regards to queries on coming snowfalls. There is also a 7 day forecast for the New Zealand snowfields around Queenstown and Wanaka for the Aussies who like to keep an eye out over the ditch.

The post After two of the worst snow seasons on record, how are we looking for Season 2025? appeared first on Snowatch.

The countdown is on to snow season and Mt Buller is buzzing.  

NEW  6-seater chairlift on Bourke Street
NEW Kooroora development in the village
NEW Park & Ride service for peak season day visitors 
NEW expanded parking areas
NEW snowmaking on Men’s Downhill
NEW mini SnowFactory adding snow to snowplay parks and beginner areas
NEW Mountain Collective and Ikon Pass benefits at Mt Buller this winter

W

The post Look what’s new at Mt Buller this winter appeared first on Snowatch.

By Pete Taylor
Snow Forecastor & Owner
snowatch.com.au

With the official start to Snow Season 2018 starting on Saturday and there being virtually zero natural snow on the ground and only a smattering of the man made stuff, I’d thought I’d go back over the last 25 years to show that this is actually quite normal and there is no need to panic. This year we have been unlucky in that temps in the resorts have not been great for making snow so things look quite dire in the resorts.

Over the last 25 years we have had 10 years with 0cm as the official snow depth in early June at Spencer’s Creek taken by Snowy Hydro (11 years if you count 2001 that only had 1.8cm depth on June 7). Of these years of no natural snow to start us off we have had good, bad and average seasons so there is no real correlation pointing to what we will end up with this year.

In 1996 there was zero natural snow on the ground as late as June 25 but it ended up as a massive season with a peak depth of 254.2cm taken on October 3rd. On the other side of the ledger 1998 had zero snow on June 4 and only struggled to a paltry peak depth of 138.2cm on August 23.

The last season to not have natural snow at season opening was 2014 and what at the time looked like it was going to be a big but peaked very early on July 24 with 168.5cm.

If we were to take an average from these 11 years that the snow season struggled to get of the ground then we would come up with around 161cm and the peak would be in the third week of August. Over the last ten years or so snowmaking has papered over the fact that early June is usually sketchy. With a couple of good weeks of cold nights leading up to opening weekend the resorts can be top to bottom.

The good news is that we have snow on the way next week, and things look like they will start to pick up fairly quickly with cool temps also allowing the snow guns to fire for extended periods. We should see some lifts running by next weekend, although only on a thin base.

Keep an eye on the Snowatch 15 day resort and Long Range forecasts for developments.

Pete

The post Having no snow is normal – but where do we go from here? appeared first on Snowatch.