{"id":812701,"date":"2026-07-20T18:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812701\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T18:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:02:17","slug":"australian-ski-resorts-smash-july-climate-records-with-temperatures-12c-above-average-australia-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812701\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian ski resorts smash July climate records with temperatures 12C above average | Australia weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales<\/a> and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum temperatures up to 12C above average.<\/p>\n

Ski areas of Mount Hotham and Falls Creek set July records for their hottest daytime and night-time temperatures and Thredbo also set a new hottest July day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.<\/p>\n

The records come after a challenging start for Australia\u2019s ski season<\/a> with dry and warm temperatures seeing only sporadic falls of natural snow in many alpine areas, leaving resorts to rely mostly on snow-making technology.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The El Ni\u00f1o now in place<\/a> in the tropical Pacific and the bureau\u2019s long-range forecast both pointed to generally drier and warmer conditions for alpine regions this winter \u2013 a \u201cbad combination\u201d for snow.<\/p>\n

Climate scientists have long warned that global heating will create difficult conditions for Australia\u2019s ski resorts.<\/p>\n

Angus Hines, a senior forecaster at the bureau, said a slow-moving high pressure system \u2013 characterised by clear skies and descending dry air \u2013 had been a key to the spiking temperatures.<\/p>\n

He said this had also caused a \u201ctemperature inversion\u201d where it was cooler closer to sea level than it was at higher altitudes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese temperatures were a substantial departure from the norm and even from previous bursts of heat for July,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis highlights the likely issues we will have with ski seasons into the future with a warming climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said warmer than usual temperatures would remain in ski areas until about Wednesday and there was a chance of a snow flurry at the weekend, before temperatures were expected to climb early next week.<\/p>\n

Snow melts at Mt Buffalo on the weekend. Photograph: Marni Cordell\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

At Mount Hotham in Victoria\u2019s alpine country, where the official temperature record goes back 36 years, the hottest July day was 8.7C in 1994.<\/p>\n

But that record has been broken three times this month. The mercury peaked at a record 12C on Sunday in a month when the average daily maximum temperature is zero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At Falls Creek, the highest July temperature had been 9.8C recorded in 1992. But this was eclipsed with 11.5C recorded on Saturday and then 13C reached on Sunday. The average daily maximum for July is 1.2C.<\/p>\n

Also setting new daily temperature records in alpine regions this weekend were Thredbo (14C), Cabramurra (14.3C) and Mount William (15.2C).<\/p>\n

Record warm night-time temperatures were also set in Mount Buller (5.7C), Mount Baw Baw (12C), Mount William (9.4C), Mount Hotham (4.6C) and Falls Creek (also 4.6C).<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

graph showing declining snow depth in the Snowy Mountains<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr Andrew Watkins, a climate scientist at the Climate Council, skied at Mount Hotham on Friday when temperatures were already threatening the previous 1994 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredibly warm up there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not expect to see temperature records that are more than 30 years old being broken by two or three degrees. It is quite phenomenal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any climatologist is surprised by events like this any more. It is shocking in its own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura Gray, from Bright in Victoria, skied Mount Hotham and Falls Creek on the weekend and said she saw people skiing in T-shirts and without gloves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt did feel pretty bizarre and I had to keep reminding myself that it was still mid-July and not the spring,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the morning it was lovely to ski but once the sun got high enough on the slopes it turned slushy very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the ski season, which officially started in early June around the King\u2019s birthday long weekend, had been \u201cpretty grim\u201d so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not unusual not to ski on opening weekend, but it\u2019s been pretty dire \u2013 just pretty dry and warm. Without snow-making, we absolutely would not have been skiing at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we heard there was going to be an El Ni\u00f1o, that put us on edge, but I don\u2019t think anyone could have expected these July temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian has approached Snow Resorts Australia for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-812701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}