Ski resorts ‘stoked’ as winter snow finally arrives in Victoria and NSW

Mount Hotham says ‘the wait is over’ and Perisher is ‘feeling like winter again’ as fresh snow blankets alpine slopes Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An overnight cold front has swept across south-east Australia, bringing significant snowfall to much of the high country after a largely snowless start to winter. Almost 30cm of snow was reported on Friday in areas including Thredbo and Perisher in New South Wales and Mount Hotham in Victoria. Casey McCarthy from the Bureau of Meteorology said snow showers were expected to continue through Friday across the Victorian Alps and the Snowy Mountains in NSW. “[It] could pick up another 10 to 20 centimetres … more likely to towards upper slopes.” The weather event comes after large parts of the country’s east coast recorded some of the warmest starts to winter. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, “the atmosphere has been too warm to allow snow to fall anywhere but the very highest peaks”. Andrew Watkins, a climatologist and Climate Council expert, said that the delay to the beginning of winter has been a trend that started in “the middle of last century”, associated with El Niño and o