For a few reasons, this is not the best weekend to be heading to Australia's snowfields.

Image: At least the wild weather is on its way out this weekend. Source: Perisher_Resort on Instagram.

First things first: do not leave Sydney if you're in one of the four local government areas under stay-at-home orders (City of Sydney, Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick), or one of the the additional three LGAs where residents  are banned from leaving greater Sydney (Bayside, Inner West, Canada Bay).

If you're thinking of heading to the snow from anywhere where you're free to travel, be aware that:

a) there's not that much snow unfortunately after a week of mostly warm, wet weather, and;

b) it's the school holidays!

Here at Weatherzone, it seems like we've been writing snowfall stories for a couple of months now. And it's true - there were quite a few unseasonal autumn snowfalls. But in June, despite one big dump in NSW, there's actually been a lot of rain.

Just this week, there was in the vicinity of 100 mm of wet stuff (or "clear snow" as locals jokingly call it) in most NSW and VIC resorts. A little snow has fallen on Friday to help repair the patches, but things are still pretty grim, especially in the lowest resorts.

So let's do a quick whip around.

NSW

It'll be touch-and-go at Thredbo to see if they can patch up some of the runs that had to close due to rain this week. Thredbo lost Dream Run, then High Noon, confining skiing to The Cruiser quad chairlift and the beginner slopes of Friday Flat. One night of snowmaking and/or natural snowfalls could change all that, and Friday could be that night. Keep updated here.

Australia's largest resort Perisher is marching into the holidays with 20 lifts open. It's unclear whether the Guthega section of the hill will be open for the hols. It appears sketchy at this stage, but again, keep updated here. Good snow on Friday night could change everything.

And not to forget Charlotte Pass, the tiny ski village with five lifts, three of which will be open. Skiing won't be geat, but hey, it'll be a decent enough slide and the kids certainly won't argue. Details here.

VIC

The Australian mainland's southernmost ski hills of Mt Buller and Mt Baw Baw are still confined to snowmaking snow and very, very limited beginner-only skiing.

Actually, the meagre amount of terrain open at these two resorts is not even thanks to traditional snmowmaking. If you missed it, we ran an interesting story this week about the new type of snowmaking snow called "flake ice" which both Buller and Baw Baw use.

Image: Start with this... Source: ski.com.au

Image: And turn it into this... Source: ski.com.au

Hopefully Friday and Saturday bring a bit of natural stuff both to the "B" hills, as well as to Falls Creek and Mt Hotham, both of which have a few lifts open with very limited terrain. Check here for what's open at Hotham, and here for Falls Creek.

Snowfalls return to Hotham. ��� We're excited to welcome back our Melbourne guests! 🙌 Please make sure to check the current requirements. For our Melbourne guests this includes having proof of a negative COVID test result within 72 hours of departing 👉 https://t.co/Cdx2L0ZXZ1 pic.twitter.com/NssDlZ6cbY

— Hotham (@_hotham) June 16, 2021

Our pick of the Aussie resorts:

We won't say this very often during the 2021 season, as we love supporting the local ski industry, but we reckon the pick is to stay home and do a snow dance and leave whatever's there for the families who can go at no other time than school holidays.

Until next week... let it snow!