Ski areas in Australia have reported fresh snowfall with just over a month to go to the start of the 2023 season.
However ski centres, including Thredbo (pictured above today), reported gales of up to 100kph giving blizzard conditions at times.
Most Australian ski areas will open on the second weekend of June. This was traditionally due to a public holiday in honour of Queen Elizabeth II on the second Monday of the month, making it a long weekend and centres opened whether there was much snow cover or not. It's all change, in terms of the holiday's name, this winter though, as it is now the King's Birthday Weekend in honour of King Charles III, although his birthday is in November.
This winter will see the re-opening of the Selwyn Ski Area for the first time since winter 2019 after it was largely destroyed by bush fires in early 2000. It was close to re—opening last winter having been rebuilt through the pandemic but early heavy snowfall in autumn-winter 2022 led to a last minute postponement to this winter as the final bits of reconstruction work could not be completed.
It is ready to go for 2023 though and has been testing its new snowmaking systems this week.
Pre-season snowfall on high slopes has also been reported in the Andes and in New Zealand.