Australia’s ski season opens with a heat problem

Australia’s alpine resorts have managed a familiar modern feat: turning winter into something that requires machinery. Over the weekend, ski fields in New South Wales and Victoria logged July temperatures as much as 12C above average, with several sites setting new records in a season that has already looked thin on snow and thick on inconvenience.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Mount Hotham and Falls Creek both recorded their hottest July daytime and night-time temperatures, while Thredbo also posted a new July high. At Mount Hotham, where records go back 36 years, the previous July peak of 8.7C set in 1994 was broken three times this month. On Sunday, the temperature reached 12C in a month when the average daily maximum is 0C. Falls Creek did not fare much better: its earlier July record of 9.8C from 1992 was overtaken by 11.5C on Saturday and 13C on Sunday, against an average daily maximum of 1.2C.

The broader picture is hardly reassuring. Dry, warm conditions have brought only sporadic natural snowfall to many alpine areas, leaving resorts to rely mostly on snow-making technology. El Niño is now in place in the tropical Pacific, and the bureau’s long-range forecast points to generally drier and warmer conditions in alpine regions this winter. For ski operators, that is the sort of combination that makes a business built on cold weather look rather exposed.

Angus Hines, a senior forecaster at the bureau, said a slow-moving high-pressure system with clear skies and descending dry air had driven the temperature spike. He also pointed to a temperature inversion, with conditions cooler near sea level than at higher altitudes. These temperatures were a substantial departure from the norm and even from previous bursts of heat for July, he said. This highlights the likely issues we will have with ski seasons into the future with a warming climate.

The records were not confined to the headline resorts. Thredbo reached 14C, Cabramurra 14.3C and Mount William 15.2C. Warm night-time records were also set at Mount Buller, Mount Baw Baw, Mount William, Mount Hotham and Falls Creek. When even the nights stop doing their job, the alpine calendar starts to look like a formality.

Dr Andrew Watkins of the Climate Council skied at Mount Hotham on Friday, when temperatures were already closing in on the old 1994 mark. He said it was incredibly warm and that records more than 30 years old are not usually broken by two or three degrees. Laura Gray, from Bright in Victoria, skied Mount Hotham and Falls Creek on the weekend and saw people skiing in T-shirts and without gloves. She said it felt bizarre to be on the slopes in mid-July, that the snow turned slushy quickly once the sun climbed higher, and that the season so far had been pretty grim. Without snow-making, she said, there would have been no skiing at all.

The bureau says warmer-than-usual temperatures should linger in ski areas until about Wednesday, with a chance of a snow flurry at the weekend before temperatures rise again early next week. Snow Resorts Australia has been approached for comment. The mountains may still get their winter moment, but this one has begun with a reminder that climate does not negotiate.

Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com