The Australian snow season is expected to take off to a slow start in 2025, but conditions could become better into the second half of the season.

When is Australia’s snow season?

Australia’s snow season typically runs between the long weekends in June and October. In 2025, the snow season will run from about June 7 to October 6, although the exact start and end dates can vary slightly between individual resorts.

In an average season, the natural snow base builds up during June and July before reaching a peak depth in August or early September. This base then melts promptly in October as temperatures start to climb in spring.

Australia snow season 2025 forecast

Snow requires two key ingredients to reach the ground: sufficiently low temperatures and adequate moisture. Having one ingredient without the other won’t produce snow, so we need cold air and precipitation to occur over the Australian alps at the same time for snow to settle.

Forecast models suggest that conditions could be unfavourable for snow early in the season but should improve as the season progresses.

The ECMWF SEAS5 model, which is one of the most highly regarded seasonal forecast models in the world, predicts below average precipitation and above average temperatures over the Australian alps in June.

Image: Forecast precipitation anomaly for June 2025, according to the ECMWF SEAS5 model.

Image: Forecast maximum temperature anomaly for June 2025, according to the ECMWF SEAS5 model.

These abnormally warm and dry conditions could see June struggling to produce a good natural snow base at the start of the season. A similarly slow start to the season occurred in 2020 and 2017, which both had less than 30 cm of natural snow on the ground at Spencers Creek, NSW (elevation 1830m) by the end of June.

Image: Natural snow depth observations at Spencers Creek, NSW in 2020 and 2017. Source: Snowy Hydro

Fortunately, the prospects of snow in the Australian alps start to improve into the second half of winter.

Some forecast models predict a signal of above average precipitation from July through the second half of winter and into early spring. If this precipitation teams up with freezing temperatures in the mountains, we can expect to see plenty of snow.

Image: Forecast precipitation anomaly for August 2025, according to the ECMWF SEAS5 model.

Daytime maximum temperatures are predicted to be slightly higher than average in July but could trend closer to average by August. Despite the background warming influence of climate change in Australia, July and August are climatologically the coldest months of the year in the alps, so there should be plenty of cold air to produce snow in late winter and early spring.

Image: Forecast maximum temperature anomaly for August 2025, according to the ECMWF SEAS5 model.

The biggest risk to the Australian snow base during August and September will be periods of rain in warmer air masses between cold outbreaks. These rainy periods are difficult to predict at the seasonal scale and can have a big impact in some seasons and little effect in others.

How are resorts preparing for the 2025 Australian snow season?

Some of the bigger ski resorts have already released their events calendars for the upcoming snow season.

Thredbo is planning to kick things off with a Winter 2025 Opening Weekend on June 7-8, promising to be “a massive Opening Weekend full of activities for the whole family!”

Perisher has been installing new chairlifts and upgrading its snowmaking infrastructure ahead of the 2025 season. The resort will also be hosting the Peak Music Festival on the opening weekend, running from June 6-8. Fireworks are also scheduled for June 7.

Hotham are offering free hot chocolates, donuts and s’mores by the fire to kick off their season from Saturday, June 7.

Falls Creek will be running an Opening Weekend Festival over the June long weekend, which includes a Village Bowl Street Party and fireworks.

Stay up to date throughout the 2025 snow season

While seasonal outlooks can give you a general idea about what to expected over the next few months, individual weather systems can only be predicted with useful accuracy up to two weeks in advance.

Visit Weatherzone’s Snow and Ski Forecast page to get the latest details on upcoming weather systems throughout the 2025 snow season. This page will feature Alpine Forecast summaries written by meteorologists daily, as well as a 14-day Alpine Forecast showing how much snow models are predicting over the next fortnight. You can also check the latest conditions at Australia’s main ski resorts by viewing live snow cams.