Snowpocalypse now : Megablizzard forecast for Australia

Australia

news.com.au
24 June 2014

IT’S here. The megablizzard. Snowpocalypse now. This baby has been on the weather charts all week and it’s howling its way through the Australian Alps as you read this.

Experienced weather watchers are calling it the storm of the century. They’re saying it could snow on and off, but mostly on, for the next 10 days.

And now the megablizzard has arrived. The NSW resorts of Thredbo and Perisher received 40cm and 50cm respectively overnight. Hotham, Falls Creek and Mt Buller in Victoria all reported similar totals.

The official Australian ski season started two weeks ago but up till yesterday then, there had been a desperately thin snow base with only a lift or two turning at the NSW resorts of Perisher and Thredbo. Victorian resorts, which are a little lower than their NSW counterparts, had nothing but grass.

That all started to change yesterday and after a brief lull in the early morning hours, the storm appears to be intensifying now.

There’s bucketloads more snow coming today and by early next week, we could be looking at virtually all lifts spinning at resorts on both sides of the Murray, with a metre or more of cover. Just in time for the school holidays too, the two week window which is vital for our ski industry bottom line.