There's good news and worrying news on the Australian snow front. We're positive people here at Weatherzone so we'll start with the good stuff.

The good news is that the new Snowy Hydro reading is in for Spencers Creek in New South Wales, and it shows a healthy depth of 129.5 cm this Wednesday, on the back of a handy recent top-up. This is the maximum reading for season 2022 to date.

Spencers Creek is located close to the main NSW resorts of Perisher, Thredbo and Charlotte Pass, so it's a good indication of snow depth above 1800 m (the higher slopes) at all three resorts. Victoria also has a good cover at its higher resorts.

The worrying news is that next week looks like a mix of rain and snow. Of particular concern is the midweek period.

Below is the synoptic chart for next Wednesday. Things can change over the space of a week, but those warm northwesterlies heading for the mountains mean warmish air with the potential for rain, before (hopefully) the system near Perth moves east and delivers more snow.

How does the 2022 snow season stack up so far?

After the back-to-blizzards that kick-started the Aussie mainland snow season in the last couple of days of May and the first week of June, Snowy Hydro’s Spencers Creek reading was 118.3 cm on June 15.

The depth then dipped to 101.2 cm on June 29 after some rain, but has rebounded to the 129.5 cm mark we mentioned earlier, on the back of a couple of moderate snowfalls.

The graph below tells an interesting tale. The dark blue line is season 2022, while the light blue line shows 2021, when heavy snowfalls in late July set up good skiing through August, even though not much fresh snow fell in that month.

Image: Good but not great. Source: Snowy Hydro.

The bottom line is that season 2022 hasn't really turned into the bumper season many people had hoped for after the fantastic early start, but there’s certainly still enough snow around for most lifts and runs to be open.

So at this stage, it's a decent season, but not yet a really good one. Let's whip around the conditions at the resorts, as we do each Thursday in the snow season:

Should I go to the snow this weekend?

Go if you can. Definitely go. And if you live somewhere like Canberra or Albury/Wodonga or even Melbourne (as in, within 2-3 hours drive of some resorts), do your day-trip on Saturday.

The weather looks to be clear on Saturday with a bit of snow and sleety rain at lower elevations moving in on Sunday.

VICTORIA

Mt Hotham, Falls Creek and Mt Buller all have most of their lifts open. Hotham and Falls have a base around 90-100 cm, while Buller's is more like 60 cm. Check the open lifts and runs on the highlighted links.

Heavenly first tracks laps from 7:30am Wednesday to Sunday at #Hotham. Another cracking corduroy session this morning! #skiing #firsttracks #blueskies pic.twitter.com/PuzwNtKtV7

— Hotham (@_hotham) July 22, 2022

Australia's lowest mainland resort, Mt Baw Baw, has a depth of just 16 cm, but is struggling along with three of its seven lifts open. More info here.

NSW

Thredbo and Charlotte Pass both have all lifts spinning, while there's a strong rumour Perisher will open Olympic T-Bar for the first time this season this weekend, which is great news for those who crave the super steeps. That would give them all lifts running. Again, check the highlighted links for updates.

Image: Expect weather like this on Saturday in the snowfields. Source: Author's pic.

TASMANIA

Not such great news at Mt Mawson and Ben Lomond, where the patchy snow cover is suitable only for snow play.

As ever, please don't forget to visit Weatherzone's snow page for the latest conditions, cams, forecasts and more.