Deepest Snow Depths Currently The Same in Northern and Southern Hemispheres

Temple Basin as well as Turoa on Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand have become the first ski areas in the southern hemisphere to post 2m+ bases this season. 

Temple Basin says it has a 2.3m base whilst Turoa currently reports a 204cm base following 5cm of fresh snow at the weekend.

Elsewhere in the southern hemisphere, resorts reporting the deepest bases in their countries include:

In Argentina, Caviahue has a 1.7m base.

In Australia, Perisher (below at the weekend), Selwyn Snowfields and Thredbo all miraculously have the same depth posted of 131cm but Mt Hotham’s latest snowfall has takenh it to 142cm – bases here are growing daily though (as pictured top earlier today).

In Chile (which is not having a very snowy winter so far) Valle Nevado has a 1m base.

Several northern hemisphere summer ski areas are still reporting snow base depths of more than two metres on their glaciers despite the current very hot weather in the Alps.  However the 2.3m base at Temple Basin now matches the deepest base in the northern hemisphere as bases reduce there.

This is partly due to the heavy snowfall last winter – but snow cover does seem to be reducing rapidly in the heat, with the freezing level well above 4000m (above the level of the tops of the mountains) in most cases and daytime temperatures in double figures even up on the glaciers more than 3000 metres above sea level.

The Molltal glacier reports a 2.3m base (down from 2.8 metres last month), Saas Fee (above) the snow lying 2 metres deep (down from 3m a few weeks ago), and the Fonna glacier in Norway, the only one still open in Scandinavia after others closed early due to the heat there too, also reporting a two metre base.