The 2025 ski season is already looking like a ripper. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
After three lacklustre years for snowfall, 2025 did not have a high bar to clear to be the best snow season in years, but with up to a metre of snow predicted, it’s looking set to be one of the best this century.
With a massive dump of snow predicted across the weekend and into early next week at Perisher and Thredbo, the snow pack could top 2 metres, a level only seen eight times this century.
And it’s not just a good-looking season by this century’s admittedly average standards.
Snow depth at Spencers Creek – Snowy Hydro’s snow depth measuring station between Perisher and Thredbo – has already hit 115 cm.
Above last year’s maximum depth of 113 cm and above the average depth for the last 71 years.
For skiers and boarders, the season is already far outperforming last year when the thin, patchy cover barely made it through August. Locals and visitors alike are calling it the best season in years.
Snowy Mountains Backcountry’s ski guide Doug Chatten said it’s great to see heavy snow in the forecast.
“It’s building better than I’ve seen for quite a few years for this time of year. The mountains filled in really nicely.
“It’s very buoying, it’s very good, we’re very happy about it. It’s nice to see the mountain covered up … The resorts are looking really good. Once we get to 2 metres of snow, well, that’s fantastic.”
If the following week’s predicted snowfall is as deep as expected, it could create conditions for the elusive October ski season, a rarity in the 21st century. The last one was in 2018 at Perisher.
Bureau of Meteorology community information officer Morgan Pumpa said that a big cold front would bring potentially 13 to 50 cm of snow to the mountains across Saturday and Sunday.
“Once we get towards Friday, we have another cold front coming through and it might actually be stronger than the one we saw [on Wednesday]. So with the amounts, it will depend on how much moisture or the cold air with that snow heading upwards from the west to the east of the country.”
Conditions are set to become a bit rough over the weekend, though, with 70 km/h winds forecast on Saturday. Ms Pumpa said that snowgoers should be aware of the conditions and check in with the Bureau.
“The two days in a row are also a good thing for anyone heading up to the snow, but the main concern would be if we see the return of those really strong and even damaging winds, blizzard-like conditions,” she said.
Unfortunately for snow lovers, the latest snowstorm isn’t a silver bullet for bad seasons. Snow seasons are still trending downward as the planet continues warming.
Current modelling by the ANU predicts the snow season will be between 28 and 55 days shorter on average by 2050.
Even in our mountains, the effects of climate change are already evident, where snowpack used to regularly last into November, sometimes even December.
Snow stretched into November 12 times between 1984 and 2000. Since then, it’s only happened three times.
Perisher’s forecast for the rest of the week includes snow showers daily, with high winds easing by the middle of next week, accompanied by minimum temperatures as low as -6.
