Summer Snow in NSW and Victoria Makes for Temporary White Christmas

Snow covered chairlifts at Hotham. Image:: Courtesy Hotham Alpine Resort

Summer Snow

The NSW Snowy Mountains and Victorian High Country experienced a temporary return to winter on the weekend with around 10cm of snow falling down to 1600m in the snow resorts.

Summer activities were put on hold on Saturday and Sunday as snowflakes dusted the slopes, in Thredbo the Thredbo Downhill mountain bike track was closed due to ice and snow settled on cars in the village temporarily. In Mt Buller, where about 5cm fell at village level, visitors swapped bikes and hiking boots for toboggans to enjoy the temporary ‘white Christmas’.

Hotham Alpine village, which sits at an altitude of 1750m, was covered in a 10cm snow blanket and it was a similar story at Charlotte Pass, which sits at 1765m.

The snow should be replaced by blue skies on Wednesday 22 December, however temperatures will remain well below 20 degrees Celsius. Christmas Day should have highs around 14 to 15 degrees Celsius.

A local’s perspective | Reggae Elliss

A winter-like cold snap had locals complaining and some visitors beaming when snow fell across the Snowy Mountains on the weekend. While rain, sleet and snow fell on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, closing Thredbo’s mountain bike trails, there was a ‘proper’ snowfall overnight Sunday, 19 December into Monday, 20 December. At 11.30pm on Sunday night, snowflakes the size of 20 cent pieces were falling in Thredbo Village, settling on cars and making late night revellers burst into off-key renditions of White Christmas. While most of the snow in the village had disappeared by 7am Monday, the top two thirds of the mountain was still white, the main ski runs and snowgums covered with snow, the view of the mountain from the village looking more like mid-July than December.

After the wettest October and November in years, when it has rained nearly every weekend for two months, most of the locals were grumbling about the cold and the need to chop wood for the fire. However most visitors, other than disgruntled mountain bikers, were surprisingly up beat about the winter-like weather. As school holidays are underway there are a few families in town, many of them taking the Kosiouszko Chair up to the top of the mountain where they took advantage of the 10cm of snow on the ground, building snow men and having snowball fights. The novelty of a snowfall this close to Christmas had radio stations from Sydney chasing down locals for a chat and a camera crew also drove up from Canberra to get some pictures for the evening news.

However, snowfalls during summer happen regularly, especially above 1800m where snow showers occur at least once a month between November and May. Occasionally the freezing level drops to 1500m as it did this time and snow will fall in Thredbo village at 1380 metres. Four years ago there was 15cms in the village on Christmas morning – two days later the temp hit 28 degrees and it was all over.

By mid-afternoon Monday, the snowline had receded to the top of the mountain above Kareela Hut and with warmer overnight temps and sunshine forecast by Wednesday it’ll disappear pretty quickly. The best thing is the cold has killed all the blow flies – that is always makes for a pleasant Christmas in the mountains.

Mount Buller forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Charlotte Pass forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Hotham forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Thredbo forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.