In many ways skiing in Australia is the canary in the coalmine in terms of effect of climate change.
This graph shows the situation since measurements began to be taken at a place called Spencer Creek - it's a key measuring station for our largest hydro power scheme and a pretty good proxy for what's happening in the nearby resorts of Thredbo and Perisher - the latter owned by Vail.
Full article
here.
For the data purists, this graph unfortunately does not show the 2017 and 2018 seasons which were a little better in terms of peak depth compared to 2016 - the last year shown above. So you'll have to visualise them based on these charts.
The multi-decade graph above certainly re-enforces my experience skiing in this area for 60+ years. Declining snow coverage as conditions become ever more marginal.
Australian resorts like Thredbo and Perisher have made multi-million dollar investments in snow making. It is part of the answer - right now (July 7th 2019) it is the only thing allowing resorts to be open. But this snow-cam shot shows the issue.
The snow making is restricted to the groomed runs. Skiers are visible descending what is called the Super Trail just to the right of the chair lift and then cutting back under it on the lower slopes. This is a nice intermediate run and fine if all that you wish to ski is a fairly crowded groomer that will be scraped back to ice by lunch.
All the more interesting terrain - left half of the picture and further left off screen and the ridge in background top right - are not skiable with this little natural snow cover and require more snow base over a wide area than can be reasonably provided with snow making.
So snow making may work for a section of the ski population but unlikely to provide the same type of skiing experience that posters here seem to enjoy.
Of course the situation could change rapidly with a couple of good snow storms. However at this point the season has been officially under way for 1 month.
I mean..no offense..but if all we're worried about is lack of skiing, we need to re-evaluate our priorities..
Maybe. Then again, this snow pack provides the water Australia's largest irrigation and hydro-power system. Low snow pack equals declining damn levels equals less water for growing crops and powering the machines of industry.