Heavy snowfalls in the last week of winter have led to a snow base exceeding two metres in the highest parts of the Australian alpine region for the first time since 2022.

For the first time in three years, ski lifts will keep spinning well into September at the New South Wales and Victorian resorts, with the highest ski areas now very likely to make it through to the traditional closing on the first weekend in October (the long weekend in NSW).

How much snow is there exactly?

Image: The base station of Perisher’s Olympic T-bar had to be dug out before it could be reopened on Sunday after last week’s blizzard. Source: Steve Smith.

Since 1954, Hydro-electric operator Snowy Hydro has manually measured the snow depth at three NSW locations, with regular updates every week or so.

Image: Snow depth comparison of 2024 and 2025 (to date) at Spencers Creek, NSW. Source: Snowy Hydro.

Snowy Hydro is currently reporting a depth of 220.4cm this Monday, September 1, at Spencers Creek – its highest snow measuring site at an elevation of 1830m, roughly halfway between the two major NSW ski resorts of Perisher and Thredbo.

Image: A natural cornice (overhanging snow and ice) caused by strong westerly winds on August 31, 2025, in the NSW Snowy Mountains. Source: Steve Smith.

While Victoria has no direct equivalent of Snowy Hydro's independent measurements, Mt Hotham is reporting a base of 159cm this Monday, while Falls Creek reports an average depth of 143cm.

On both sides of the Murray River, the September snowpack in the Australian high country in 2025 makes a welcome contrast from the disappointing seasons of 2023 and 2024, when the peak snow depth occurred in July, the snowpack deteriorated in unseasonably warm conditions in August, and ski lift operations wound up in September.

Be sure to keep checking the Weatherzone snow page for the latest forecasts, live cam images and much more until the end of the 2025 Australian snow season.