Conditions pretty good right now in Perisher, Australia.
Snow in Australia, while the largest open ski areas and deepest snow are in South America.
The Snow Headlines - July 18th
- Snowfall returns to Australia, with more forecast.
- Tignes due to end their 2024 summer ski season.
- Ski areas in Argentina and Chile post 100km open terrain - largest in world since early May.
- Argentinian ski areas posting world's deepest snow at 3.3m (11 feet).
More snow forecast for Australia
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World Overview
The southern hemisphere's key ski nations have seen a third predominantly dry week, with some great conditions where there's plenty of snow lying in South America and at quite a few resorts now in New Zealand.
The weather is gradually starting to change at most ski areas though and snow showers have been reported in Australia (where they're most needed) since the weekend, with some snow at more southerly centres in Argentina and Chile too, and more on the way.
In the northern hemisphere, the main challenge is thawing snowpack on the seven glacier areas still open for summer skiing in Europe; five in the Alps, and two in Norway. Fortunately, the cold and snowy spring of 2024 has left several areas with the snow 3m (10 feet) deep still, which is a healthy stat for mid-July in the era of global warming and leaves them in a stronger position as temperatures continue to rise above freezing at 3,000m and higher.
One resort is still open with lift-accessed ski slopes in North America too.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
After more than a fortnight of predominantly dry, sunny weather Australian ski areas began to see snow falling again at the weekend and that intensified through the start of this week.
With the school holidays in full swing, resorts - which have been having to discount services due to limited terrain at most areas - will be hoping there's enough snow by the weekend to be able to open more.
Perisher, with all four sectors at least partially open, has the most terrain available; about a third of its total terrain represented by about 22km of slopes.
Thredbo is claiming a deeper base though at half a metre (Perisher's max is 35cm) but has only a quarter (12km) of its slopes open.
Falls Creek and Mount Hotham have the highest percentages of terrain open, both at around 40%.
Mount Buller though only has 5%.
The cold and snowier conditions are expected to continue through the weekend with another 20-30cm of snowfall expected for most areas from a major Antarctic blast at the weekend.
New Zealand
Although they don't appear to have had any huge snowfalls, New Zealand's ski areas seem to be in better shape, on the whole, than their Aussie neighbours so far, at least in terms of terrain open.
Several centres, including Treble Cone, are fully open and a number with more terrain, including Mount Hutt and Cardrona, are past 50% open with 25km or more of runs available.
Some smaller centres without snowmaking, including Temple Basin, are still yet to open - reporting they need more snowfall. Whakapapa on Mount Ruapehu still only has a few hundred metres of slopes reported open.
Base depths are a little better too, where centres are open, with most posting 50-70cm lying on upper slopes. Conditions have been and should continue to be fairly settled with plenty of sunshine, and temperatures in the -4 to +4C range.
It's looking increasingly likely that snow showers will bubble up though, with fronts moving up from the south.
Argentina
After the dry weather that's lasted nearly three weeks now, fresh snow has begun falling on Argentinian ski slopes, if nothing like the heavy snowfall that kept dumping through May and June, so far at least.
Temperatures have been as low as -11C overnight up high, +8/9C at resort bases mid-afternoon.
Argentina is currently home to the ski area with the most open terrain anywhere in the world (that's Catedral with more than 96km or 80% of its slopes) open. It's also home to the deepest reported snow depth at any open ski area on the planet (Chapelco – 3.4 metres – more than 11 feet).
So really a very promising picture for the first full month of the season.
Chile
We've had another predominantly dry, often sunny week in Chile, with fabulous conditions thanks to the huge amounts of May and June snowfall, leaving deep cover across the country's ski slopes and several centres including Portillo 100% open. The Tres Valles (or the "3 Valleys of the Andes") close to Santiago, which include the slopes of Valle Nevado, La Parva and El Colorado, have more than 120km of slopes open between them - the largest area in the world right now if we're including linked areas.
It hasn't been entirely dry, with snowfall reported at more southerly destinations including Nevados de Chillan. The picture across the country for the coming week is looking more unsettled with snow showers increasingly likely.
Southern Africa
It's been the usual sunshine week in Lesotho but Afriski Resort continues to maintain its full mile-long run, alongside its beginner slope and terrain park features. Temperatures continue to drop a few degrees below freezing overnight and climb to +8 or +9C in the daytime giving freeze-thaw conditions for the snowpack.
Europe
There are seven glacier areas currently open in Europe, but Tignes, now the only centre open in France, is expected to close this weekend after just under a month of summer ski operations.
The weather has been predominantly good after spells of unsettled, stormy weather brought rain to high elevations in the Alps, and northerly latitudes in Scandinavia, along with strong winds and low visibility, temporarily closing some areas.
Currently, Zermatt (its ski area also accessible from Cervinia), Hintertux and Saas-Fee each have the most terrain open – between about 15 and 20km each.
Italy's Passo Stelvio and Norway's Fonna and Galdhopiggen areas each have about 5km of lift-accessed skiing available.
North America
There remains just the one centre, Timberline on Mount Hood in Oregon, that's still open in North America.
There are a few miles of slopes open on the Palmer snowfield where temperatures have been in the 60s Fahrenheit this last week, with another week of mostly sunny conditions. That's the forecast for next week again too!