Australia's slowest start to a snow season in 26 years is about to get a shake up that should put a smile on alpine-lover's faces. The season to date has been a double-edged sword: lacklustre in terms of natural snowfall, yet ideal for artificial snowmaking. A series of dry cold fronts in recent weeks has left many areas in the alps virtually bare during the final days of June. Today's snow depth measurement at Spencer's Creek, located between Perisher and Thredbo in NSW, was a meagre 4cm. This is the lowest natural snow depth for this point of the season in 26 years. Despite the lack of natural snow so far this winter, resorts with artificial snowmaking capabilities have been able to maintain decent bases on their runs thanks to a lack of rainfall and freezing overnight temperatures in recent weeks. So, with June going down as a disappointing month in terms of natural snowfall, will things improve as we head into July? A cold front crossing Australia's southeast today will maintain the June trend of cold air and light snow in the mainland alps. Once again, this front is starved of moisture. Things will change during the first week of July though. There is potential for the first decent snowfall of winter at Australia's main ski resorts. A low pressure system and associated cold front will bring cold air and moisture to the alps on Monday and Tuesday, a combination that we haven't seen much of in recent weeks. The air will initially be too warm for snow away from the higher alpine peaks, leading to rain for the lower slopes on Monday. Fortunately, snow will start to fall further down the mountains as the air becomes colder behind the front from Monday afternoon or evening. Thanks to a broad and slow moving long-wave trough, the air should remain cold enough for snow above about 1400 metres from Monday night until at least Friday and possibly through the weekend too. Snow is likely to fall lower than this at times. By the end of next week, around 15-35cm of fresh natural snow should have fallen across the alps. One or two resorts may even see more than this. Next week's snowy weather will be a welcome change from the recent dry run and should help kick off the natural snow base as we head into July. The average peak snow depth at Spencers Creek is just below two metres and this usually occurs in late August to early September.