WORLD SNOW ROUNDUP #99
Issued: 07 August 2019
By Patrick “Snowhunter” Thorne
Our latest roundup of snow conditions around the world. Each section that follows below goes into detail country by country. Clicking the map thumbnail will take you to our dynamic snow forecast map for the latest detail (where you can also overlay live weather & reported conditions). Weather outlooks for Europe and North America can be found at the end of this roundup.
INTRODUCTION:
As we enter August we’ve reached the midway point, and in some cases the peak, of the Southern Hemisphere’s 2019 ski season. Most of the 100 or so ski areas in Argentina, Australia, Chile, Lesotho, New Zealand and South America are fully open and have healthy base depths; the deepest reaching the three-metre (10 foot) mark in the past week. There have been some big snowfalls this week too, in New Zealand in particular. In the Northern Hemisphere we’re down to eight areas open with the hot summer sun beating down; however, in the Alps, August has started slightly cooler than July ended.
New Zealand has had the most active weather systems of the world’s main ski regions over the past week with mother nature throwing pretty much everything at the country. Although some areas have seen nearly a metre of snowfall since this time last week (bringing to an end a stop-start period for snow cover that had plagued several areas since the start of the season more than a month ago), the heavy snow has generally been accompanied by strong to gale-force winds and some areas also saw heavy rainfall on top of their fresh snow. There was even an out-of-bounds avalanche reported near The Remarkables ski area although the tracks of a snowboarder that go into the avalanche zone are also visible coming out the other side so it appears no one was caught in it. It’s all meant a mixture of great days and frustrating closed days due to strong winds, too much snow, or in at least one case, the unwelcome rain.
In Australia, conditions continue to look good with consistently cold weather over the past week allowing areas to maintain what are, for most Aussie resorts, good conditions and open more terrain. More heavy snowfall is on the way here too for later this week.
In South America, it has been a fairly stable week with little fresh snow to report (although there has been some, 10-25cm at ski areas in both Argentina and Chile). Most areas are in good shape thanks to significant snowfalls in June and July and are fully open.
The weather in the Alps has changed a good deal compared to a little over a week ago when even up high on the glaciers temperatures were well above zero, day and night, and reaching the high teens by mid-afternoon, leading to Tignes ending its 2019 summer ski season early. Instead, it has been much cooler; closer to zero, day and night (and indeed dropping back below freezing some nights), with fresh snow reported on a number of glaciers, albeit ones that aren’t currently open including Italy’s Marmolada and Austria’s Kitzsteinhorn. The latter reported 10cm of fresh snow on Saturday. But then it is probably only a little more than a month until it and other Austrian glaciers begin opening for their 2019-20 ski season.
INDEX:
Australia / New Zealand / Argentina / Chile / South Africa / Lesotho / Austria / France / Switzerland / Italy / Andorra / Norway/Sweden / Germany / Bulgaria / Japan / Scotland / USA / Canada / South America Weather Outlook / Southern Hemisphere / Europe Weather Outlook / North America Weather Outlook
AUSTRALIA
There’s been little change in conditions in Australia over the past week with mostly dry, generally cold weather allowing resorts to consolidate their current operations and in several cases open additional terrain. Thredbo (127/218cm) has the deepest base (upper slope) in the country and is fully operational. Perisher (140/186cm) has the deepest base level snow and has almost 100 runs open, that’s the most of any ski area in the world at present. It’s not entirely good news across the country, however, Selwyn snowfields (13/13cm) is getting by with a very thin base and just managing to open a handful of lifts and runs. Mt Baw Baw (39/39cm) also only has about half of its terrain skiable.
NEW ZEALAND
Conditions in New Zealand are very different to a week ago following a week of snowy, windy weather extremes, as mentioned in our introduction. The little Manganui (100/300cm) club field has had a huge jump in its snow depth reporting around 80cm of fresh snow and now reports the deepest base, on its upper slopes, in the Southern Hemisphere; the only area to have reached 3 metres (10 feet). This area was closed due to rain at the weekend. On the bigger commercial fields Whakapapa, that received 50cm of snowfall at the end of last week, has a very good base of 159cm (beating Manganui by 1cm at present). As with Australia, the numbers aren’t great everywhere. Rainbow (27/62cm) reports the lowest depths in the country.
ARGENTINA
Cerro Catedral (0/115cm), the largest ski area in South America by uplift, has also posted the biggest snowfall in the world of the past week, outside New Zealand. The area received 25cm more snow in the middle of last week. This builds on one of the biggest falls there for decades the previous week and means conditions are about as good as they get at present here. It is still snowing at some areas with Caviahue (100/150cm) reporting 10cm of fresh cover in the past 24 hours.
CHILE
Some fresh snow in Chile the past week but mostly cold, dry weather with temperatures in the freezing to minus 10 range. Nevados de Chillan (110/165cm) still has the deepest base in the country and enjoyed another 10cm accumulation last Thursday. El Colorado (80/110cm) reports the most terrain open at least in terms of run count, with 40 trails pisted. However, it is far from a vintage season so far and there’s news this week that the Swiss Women’s World Cup team have pulled out of a planned Chilean training session and will stay on their own glaciers at Saas Fee and Zermatt instead as they say there’s not enough snow. Portillo’s (60/135cm) base numbers continue to improve but it’s not yet running at capacity.
SOUTH AFRICA
A few weeks now since the last fresh snow in South Africa but conditions remain pretty good at Tiffindell as temperatures have remained low enough for snow cover to be maintained. August is the last month of the season here.
LESOTHO
There’s little change on conditions at Afriski, in Lesotho, compared to a week ago. August 7th marks the two-month point of their 2019 season and the centre continues to be in good shape with the main kilometre long run fully open and temperatures in the 0-5C range. There’s been no fresh snow and there’s not any in the forecast.
AUSTRIA
In Austria, the two summer ski choices remain the Hintertux (0/95cm) and Molltal (0/210cm) glaciers, both of which are open almost year-round. (The Molltal just closes for a month or so each year in May/June whilst Hintertux never closes, except due to bad weather.) After the rapid drop in snow depths after the hot weather at the end of July, the start of August has seen cooler temperatures and so little deterioration over the past 7 days. The Hintertux glacier continues to offer one of the biggest summer ski areas (probably the biggest) in the Northern Hemisphere with 20km of runs reported open. At the Molltal it’s more like 3km.
FRANCE
Things have cooled down a little compared to a week ago in the French Alps. Although Tignes closed for summer skiing a week early it was only Les Deux Alpes (0/145cm) that was due to be open in France for most of August so we’re back on track. “Europe’s largest skiable glacier” currently has six runs and its summer terrain park open. Temperatures have been back down close to freezing so the fast thaw has ended for the time being. Tignes is due to re-open at the end of next month.
SWITZERLAND
As with Austria, Switzerland’s two stalwarts of year-round snow-sports, Zermatt (0/250cm and open every day weather permitting) and Saas Fee (0/100cm and open July to April), are the country’s two choices for skiing or boarding in August. There’s been no real fresh snow over the past week but temperatures have been generally cooler meaning the snow cover has stayed in better shape until later in the morning. That said, it has been creeping up to higher temperatures again with a mixture of sunshine and cloud. Both resorts have around 15km (10 miles) of trails open.
ITALY
There was some fresh August snowfall reported in Italy at the end of last week; up on the Marmolada glacier, a former summer ski area in the Dolomites. The country’s two remaining glacier ski areas report little change on a week ago although temperatures are indeed a little cooler, back to freezing overnight and highs closer to 10C than 20C in the afternoon above 3000 metres. Cervinia (35/225cm) has good conditions on Plateau Rosa and access to Zermatt’s Klein Matterhorn slopes whilst Passo Stelvio (150/350cm) remains fully open with the deepest reported base in the Northern Hemisphere.
ANDORRA
There are currently no ski areas open in Andorra or the wider Pyrenees. Winter sports will resume here next autumn.
NORWAY/SWEDEN
There are currently no ski areas open in Scandinavia. Two Norwegian summer ski areas that had aimed to be open through the summer have had to close early as it has been too warm. The Galdhoppigen ski area, in Norway, hopes to re-open during September and Ruka, in Finland, will open at the start of October thanks to snow-farming techniques.
GERMANY
There are currently no ski areas open in Germany, other than the country’s half-dozen indoor snow centres. Outdoor winter sports will resume here next autumn.
BULGARIA
There are currently believed to be no ski areas open in Bulgaria or anywhere in Eastern Europe. Winter sports will resume in the region in the autumn.
JAPAN
The precise state of the skiing at Japan’s Gassan summer ski area is difficult to determine. The centre is still producing a daily snow report which most recently states that the snow depth is still 1.5 metres and that temperatures are now as high as 30C. The centre noted their main T-bar lift closed in July but said at the time a second short lift was still operating on the remaining snowfield. It’s unclear if it still is; however, they haven’t said it is and the snow reports are still being published!
SCOTLAND
There are currently no ski areas open in Scotland other than the Snow Factor indoor snow centre and the country’s dry slopes. Winter sports will resume in the region in the autumn.
USA
The ski area above Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood, in Oregon, remains the only ski area open to the public in North America with the ski field and terrain parks still operating despite temperatures now climbing into the 70s Fahrenheit (21C+). Operating times have been brought forward a little this week with the lifts now open from 7.30am and ceasing operations at 2 rather than 3pm, daily. Conditions are similar in Colorado where Copper Mountain has been maintaining a patch of snow for a terrain park used by ‘campers-only’ visiting their Woodward indoor freestyle summer courses; however, it is the final week of this facility being kept open.
CANADA
There are currently no ski areas open in Canada. Outdoor winter sports will resume here next autumn. Usually, ski areas in Alberta including Sunshine, Lake Louise, Mt Norquay and Nakiska are amongst the first to open for the season at the very start of November.
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE WEATHER OUTLOOK
There are some quite big temperature swings at Australian resorts coming up over the next few days with daytime highs touching double figures above zero Celcius at times, then at the other extreme night-time lows dropping as low as -10 too. There’s a mixture of cloudy and sunny days in the forecast too with more snow set to roll in towards the end of this week on Thursday/Friday. It’s still a little far off but currently it looks like this could be the start of a new period of heavy snowfall that could bring 40-80cm accumulations across the country’s ski slopes by this time next week. We’re currently in a period of relative calm in New Zealand following the huge snowfalls last week. However, another wave of snow carrying cloud is expected to cross the country on Thursday as things become more unsettled again with heavier snowfall currently expected to return at the weekend. It’s a mixed picture though with perhaps half of the country’s ski areas only likely to get 10cm or so of snow by this time next week whilst a few snow packets may see 50-70cm more snowfall. Over in the Andes there are some significant snowfalls forecast through the coming week with some areas potentially receiving 40-60cm. A familiar pattern is being followed this season with most of the snow expected in the south and east of the region with little or no snow expected in the north and west where it’s needed most at resorts like Valle Nevado.
EUROPEAN WEATHER OUTLOOK
In the Alps the weather looks set to be changeable this week with sunny, cloudy and rainy periods. Temperatures above 3,000 metres on the summer ski areas shouldn’t go much above freezing and there’s a chance that some of the precipitation could fall as snow at times. Towards the end of the coming week, it’s looking like temperatures up high will climb to the high single figures and the weather become more consistently sunny.
NORTH AMERICAN WEATHER OUTLOOK
For Timberline, in Oregon, it’s just looking warmer and sunnier. Therefore, it has become a constant challenge to keep the remaining terrain open but they’re due to do so until September
