Trav's short answer
The 2026 Australian ski season has been one of the poorest natural-snow seasons in decades, with lower alpine areas recording their worst season on record.Persistent warmth and frequent rain stopped a dependable snowpack forming at lower elevations. Higher areas had their worst natural-snow season since 2006, while lower areas were the worst on record. Selwyn and Mount Baw Baw have already closed, and Mount Hotham has brought its final day forward to 6 September.
A winter that stayed too warm
Australia's ski fields struggled to build a lasting natural snowpack in 2026
ABC meteorologist Tom Saunders reported on 3 September that the Australian high country had its warmest winter on record. June began unusually warm and wet, July finally delivered a useful snowfall but remained mild, and August again brought above-average temperatures and rain.
Why this matters for skiers: Australia can still receive heavy individual snowfalls in a warm winter, but a ski season needs cold conditions between storms as well. Rain and above-freezing temperatures can quickly strip away natural cover and also reduce conventional snowmaking windows.
Australia's 2026 snow season at a glance
Latest reporting · 3 September 2026Too much rain, not enough cold
Perisher recorded 301mm of early-winter precipitation — but very little fell below freezing
One of the clearest illustrations of the problem came from Perisher Valley. Between 1 June and 2 July, its weather station measured 301mm of precipitation, according to ABC's analysis. Only 25mm of that fell while the temperature was below 0°C.
That meant plenty of moisture was reaching the mountains, but much of it was arriving as rain rather than accumulating as snow. A more useful snowfall finally arrived in July, allowing a base to build on higher slopes, but lower elevations never developed the widespread cover normally expected through winter.
4.0°C winter mean
The longest-running Bureau station in the Australian alpine region averaged 4.0°C for winter, compared with a long-term average of 1.8°C, and beat its previous record from 2023.
1.9°C winter mean
Mount Buller's station, operating since 1985, averaged 1.9°C against a long-term winter average of just 0.1°C.
The Bureau of Meteorology says New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania each recorded their warmest winter on record. For skiing, those state records matter because the main Australian downhill resorts are concentrated in New South Wales and Victoria.
Resorts closing early
Selwyn and Mount Baw Baw have already shut, while Mount Hotham will finish on 6 September
The effect is no longer just visible in snow-depth charts. It has changed resort operations. Selwyn Snow Resort ended its 2026 season on 23 August after rain and warm temperatures damaged its remaining cover. The resort said it had hoped for colder snowmaking temperatures and more natural snow, but those conditions did not arrive in time.
Selwyn's closure came eight days before the end of August and around two weeks earlier than its 2025 finish. Mount Baw Baw also ended winter operations early and has already switched its website over to green-season information.
Mount Hotham has confirmed that Sunday 6 September 2026 will be its final day of lift operations for winter, saying difficult conditions and the forecast made it impossible to keep the season going as long as hoped.
Not every Australian resort has closed. Perisher was still operating limited terrain at the start of September, supported by snowmaking, but the amount of open skiing is far below what would normally be expected at this point in the season.
The longer-term snow trend
The 2026 season fits a decades-long decline in Australian alpine snow
A poor individual winter is not unprecedented. Australia had notably lean snow years in the past, including 1973 and 1982. What makes 2026 more significant is that it arrives against a clear long-term decline in maximum snow depth, snow cover and the number of snow days across the Australian Alps.
The Bureau of Meteorology says peak snow depths have been falling by about 0.7cm per year at Spencers Creek in New South Wales and 0.6cm per year at Rocky Valley Dam in Victoria. At higher elevations, a greater share of cold-season precipitation is now falling as rain rather than snow.
The biggest proportional fall in those comparisons is at Three-Mile Dam, 1,460m above sea level. Its average peak snow depth fell from 55cm during 1955–2000 to 34cm across the past 25 years — a decline of roughly 38%. Mount Buller's comparison is down 21%, while Spencers Creek at 1,830m is down 13%.
That elevation pattern is important. Lower ski areas sit closer to the temperature threshold between rain and snow, so relatively small amounts of warming can have a much larger effect on whether precipitation settles as snow and how long that cover survives.
Snowmaking becomes even more important
Can snowmaking protect Australian skiing from winters like 2026?
Snowmaking is already central to Australian skiing, and 2026 has shown why. Snow Resorts Australia chief executive Josh Elliott said investment in snowmaking and snow management allowed skiing, snowboarding and snowplay to continue in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT from the June long weekend despite the poor natural season.
The industry is also investing in newer all-weather snowmaking systems. Elliott told ABC that resorts using these systems can produce snow in ambient temperatures as high as +20°C. Conventional snow guns are much more dependent on sufficiently cold and dry conditions.
That does not make natural snowfall irrelevant. Resorts still need enough coverage, favourable weather and practical snow-management conditions to keep large areas of terrain open. The 2026 season demonstrates the difference between keeping selected pistes skiable and maintaining the broad natural snow cover associated with a strong Australian winter.
Protect core pistes and beginner areas
Machine-made snow gives resorts a firmer base to work with and can keep key runs operational when natural snowfall is unreliable.
Mountain-wide natural cover
Warm rain, prolonged mild spells and a lack of natural accumulation can still shrink the amount of terrain available and shorten the practical season.
For travellers planning future Australian ski holidays, the safest approach is to favour resorts with extensive snowmaking, book accommodation with flexible terms where possible and check live terrain rather than relying on the calendar alone.
Trav's final summary
Australia's 2026 ski season has been exceptionally poor for natural snow
The Australian Alps have just come through a record-warm winter, and the result has been historically low natural snow, rain-damaged cover and an early finish for several ski areas.
- Record alpine warmth: Cabramurra averaged 4.0°C for winter and Perisher reached a winter-record 14.4°C on 29 August.
- Historically low snow: higher elevations had their worst natural-snow season since 2006, while lower elevations were the worst on record.
- Early closures: Selwyn and Mount Baw Baw have finished, with Mount Hotham ending lift operations on 6 September.