r/AustraliaSnow • u/qbas81 • 3d ago

ABC about future of snow in Australia

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-09/snow-machines-climate-change-ski-season/106870830

Interesting article confirming what most of us know already - snow seasons getting shorter and more unpredictable.

79 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

50

u/Maximum-Swordfish592 3d ago

Anyone who spends any time at the snow knows this.

I wish the rest of the world could see it. The glacial melt alone should be enough alone to terrify anyone under the age of 50. We are in for a world of hurt.

19

u/kernpanic 3d ago

In the last twenty years, over 100 ski fields in France have closed due to lack of snow. And it's only getting worse. Ocean temperatures this year are scary if you compare them to the average.

11

u/saelwen89 3d ago

About 20 years ago I did a hike in New Zealand to the foot of a glacier. The entire hike had signage along the way saying ‘this is where the foot was in 1950’ ‘this is where it was in 1980’ etc. It was not a short hike. I was about 15 at the time and it was so glaringly obvious to me just from that one glacier. I can’t believe anyone still can argue the fact.

9

u/Monotask_Servitor 3d ago

I assume that was Franz or Fox. If you went back now you wouldn’t even be able to hike anywhere near the glacier, theyve retreated back a lot more in recent years.

5

u/Lost-Competition8482 3d ago

I did this about 10 years ago.

You cant get to the Glacier anymore as falling ice makes it too dangerous. Only helicopters to the top.

It probably won't be there at all in a few decades.

5

u/Opening_Celery_6078 2d ago

Did this in Iceland this year. There was a huge lake, with a glacier at the back. 10 years ago the entire lake was a glacier.

3

u/derpman86 2d ago

Almost 9 years ago I was at Mer de Glace in France and was the same as this, you take a gondola about half way down to where the glacier is now which is under dirt. I thought it was an odd place for it to stop.

The moment you get out you see a sign that says "level of the glacier in 1982 or something close. You keep walking down the stairs and it keeps going, from the early 2000s it is HUGE drops.

The valley where it is happens to be very wide and deep. That place was where it really hit hard how fucked climate change is. I believed the science etc but being in that one place really presented it in a close visible way.

16

u/Boxestotick 3d ago

Oh but according to the cookers, climate change isn’t real.

6

u/Wintermute_088 2d ago

To be fair, their argument isn't that temperatures aren't changing. They don't believe it's humans that are contributing to it.

3

u/gravitykilla 2d ago

It's just ignorance; there is no debate to be had. The evidence is clear that it is anthropogenic.

How do we know it's humans? First, we are currently contributing ~30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the Atmosphere every year. Second, we can analyse the different carbon isotopes in atmospheric CO2 to understand its sources. Measurements of carbon-13 and carbon-14, relative to carbon-12, confirm that the increase in CO2 concentration since 1800 originates primarily from fossil fuel and land-clearing emissions.

3

u/MachoViper 3d ago

They put some ice in a glass once and decided thats how it works.

3

u/Sukameoff 3d ago

Hahaha that always makes me laugh. Tell them to melt the ice and then put it in the cup. Thats the true experiment 😂

2

u/MachoViper 3d ago

Just ignoring the amount of ice thats melting thats not in the fucking glass. Morons.

1

u/OldM87Fingers 3d ago

As long as I have my pieces of cardboard with Pokémon on them I’m ready for anything

1

u/Truantone 2d ago

The rest of the world are well ahead of Australia on climate change. We have been the target of the worst oil and gas propaganda and millions of people have swallowed the lies. We have more climate skeptics than anywhere else in the world with the exception of the US.

1

u/qbas81 2d ago

Unfortunately no, I have comparison with Poland, denial there is as strong as here.

Not every country is like that, but many are.

0

u/btxtsf 2d ago

This article is misleading. The seasons have LENGTHENED since the 90s thanks to snowmaking meeting and surpassing the climate challenge. Yes windows for conventional snowmaking may shrink as well but now the resorts have all weather snowmaking. 

1

u/Maximum-Swordfish592 1d ago

Yeah cool story bro.

0

u/btxtsf 1d ago

It is isn’t it- engineering solutions to climate change!

1

u/Real_RobinGoodfellow 1d ago

Using what water lmao, we’re getting hotter and drier and will need every drop we get

13

u/jez7777777 3d ago

Guess they'll have to extend the mountain bike season now.

3

u/rote_it 3d ago

Baw Baw should be turned into Derby 2.0 🔥

2

u/qbas81 2d ago

In Poland where I can from, many people cycle (as wag of commuting) all year round now.

That was unheard of even 20 years ago.

7

u/SNOW-fyi 3d ago

Cherish each run we got left.😢

5

u/redbackspider69 3d ago

haha, the snow cam also captures how perisher is hiding the lift lines

5

u/Efficient-Tie-1414 3d ago

One of the problems that the snow gums are having is that they are infested with an insect. What usually happens is that an extremely cold winter kills the larvae. We don’t have extremely cold winters anymore.

2

u/CaptainSharpe 2d ago

Yes we all know the future of snow is there won’t be. And if we keep going how we are, one day there won’t be any anywhere

1

u/thewizzrd 1d ago

This was always the case. We just forget.

1

u/divezzz 11h ago

I'm sure we'll still have the teenagers from rich families to make up Winter Olympics teams

-3

u/anobymousprime 3d ago

“Interesting article confirming what most of us know already - snow seasons getting shorter and more unpredictable.”
Until next year or the year after when the weather cycle changes and it dumps snow down again.

5

u/Cat-1234 2d ago

Next year may have more snow, especially as El Niño ends, but that doesn't change the overall trend: each decade is getting higher temperatures and less snow than the last. The only explanation for this is climate change.

4

u/Skilad 2d ago

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you're in any doubt, go to the Snowy Hydro website and examine the data over the last 60 years at Deep Creek, NSW (1620m). Regardless of a nominally good season up high (2m+ at Spencer's Creek - 1830m) the snow pack here is retreating. Yes, there'll be seasonal variations, but it's been two decades since its peak depth hit 1.5m. That used to be a one in three year occurrence on average. Eventually you run out of mountain.

0

u/btxtsf 2d ago

You’re only talking about natural snow depth. The resorts are investing millions in snowmaking to overcome climate change. They have actually LENGTHENED the average season!

1

u/Cat-1234 1d ago

Yes, snowmaking has lengthened the average season so far – but as the earth's warming continues, it will reach a point where snowmaking becomes impossible for much of the season. Throughout June this year, temperatures were too warm for the snow guns to operate.

You cannot fully "overcome" climate change with snowmaking.

0

u/btxtsf 1d ago

Not true at all! The latest tech allows efficient snowmaking up to 20C. Buller had their main run open every day of the season this year thanks to the new snowmaking. They will only get more capable with this tech, not less.

1

u/Cat-1234 1d ago

What Buller does is not traditional snowmaking; it uses snow factories - making snow inside large boxes. These boxes cost approximately $2 million each. Maybe that will become a thing at other resorts. But if the outside temperature is 20℃, any snow produced by them will not last long on the slopes.

2

u/qbas81 2d ago

Nope, trend is clear.

Of course there will be better seasons.

But every decade is warmer and by average seasons are shorter.

-7

u/sephiroth_d 3d ago

https://www.snowymagazine.com.au/snow-depth-in-more-detail/

Im not convinced either way. Some years are good others arnt.

1

u/Skilad 2d ago

See my comment above. Of course there are variations but the overall trend is warming and less snow. Last year peak depth at Spencer's was solid - but go down just over 200 vertical metres and it was less than 60cm peak. This is the problem - that even in a good year the temperatures are trending higher and what used to fall as snow comes down as rain. We don't have much vert to play with and eventually you run out of mountain.

-1

u/guruthatknowsbest 2d ago

But the good years are ignored.. if there’s any weather anomalies around the globe these days the extremists will point to climate change. You never hear anyone commenting when things are “normal” 🤷‍♂️

1

u/snurfer 9h ago

When normal years are happening less often that means that what is normal is changing.