‘Amazing weekend’: Polar blast smashes NSW and Victoria as ski season kicks off

Ski season has kicked off with a bang as the cold snap continues to blanket southeastern parts of the country, triggering heavy snowfall across the NSW and Victorian ski resorts.As the chilly outbreak endures in South Australia and western Victoria, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned it will bring heavy snowfall, widespread showers, storms and hail. “We’ve got a low developing through eastern Victoria, and that’s wrapping rainfall back into central areas that’s bringing some welcome rainfall for our drought-affected areas in western Victoria,” senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.

Overnight, southwestern Victoria was drenched with 25mm to 50mm of rain, including up to 70mm on the Otway Ranges, and 25m to 50mm in the northeastern areas. Geelong and the western suburbs of Melbourne were hit the hardest on Sunday as a band of rain wraps around the state. Mr Narramore said the wet weather would continue for southeastern Australia, stretching from South Australia up to northern NSW.

In Victoria, a second wave of rain will hit the southern parts of the state on Monday, which will continue for much of the week.“We’re likely to see an additional 15mm to 25mm through southern areas, with isolates falls up to 50mm through parts of East Gippsland, the Otway Ranges and maybe even to eastern and southern parts of Tasmania,” he said. In NSW, a hazardous surf warning has been issued for the Illawarra, Batemans Coast and Eden Coast on Monday and Tuesday, with the dangerous conditions expected to expand to the Hunter and Sydney coast on Tuesday.

The cold snap kicked off a strong start to the ski season, where the NSW Snowy Mountains copped more than a whopping 45cm of snow on Sunday.

Perisher ski resort recorded 25cm of fresh snow falling overnight and continuing to fall, bringing the long-weekend total to 45cm.

More snow was expected to fall on Sunday across the range, with a north-westerly wind and temperatures topping only -1C.

In Victoria, Mt Buller saw 26cm of snowfall on Sunday, with temperatures reaching a top of -1.1C. Mr Narramore forecast further snow to fall in the Southern and Central Tablelands over the long weekend before dusting the Northern Tablelands on Monday morning. “We’ve already seen widespread 30cm to 50cm through part of our ski resorts in Victoria and NSW,” he said. “(We) could see an additional 10cm to 20cm (in the Northern and Southern Tablelands on Sunday) and a few centimetres in the coming days, with many areas likely to see over half a metre in the last few days. “

The snowfall comes at a welcome time for the ski resorts after a difficult few years, with Perisher posting on social media that Saturday night was an “absolutely dumping”.

The Bureau of Meteorology was reporting snowfall in the Australian Alps on Sunday above 900m as a high in Western Australia brought strong winds to north NSW.

Meanwhile, a cold front was sweeping across southern NSW, with several more fronts expected to follow before a high-pressure ridge settles over NSW next week.

The early season dusting was quick to light up social media, with people commenting that it was an “amazing weekend” and a “great start” to the ski season.

Thredbo ski resort was forecasting a high chance of snow on Monday, with Sunday’s dusting having blanketed the ski fields nestled into Mt Kosciuszko.

Across the border, Mt Hotham resort reported a whopping 51cm of snow so far a storm there, with 32cm falling in the past 24 hours.

Snow was still lightly falling at the resort on Sunday morning, with the temperature dipping to a frigid -3C.

The NSW snow season ended earlier for the second year in a row in 2024 after one of the warmest winters on record.

The Bureau reported above average winter mean temperatures across the state, in particular in the south and parts of the east coast.