Major Australian alpine resorts are closing their ski operations up to a month early after a winter that broke multiple heat records, with limited snowfall washed away by rain. Seven resorts have either already closed or announced that ski lifts will stop operating this weekend.
Resorts announce early closures
This week, the Victorian resorts of Mt Buller, Mt Hotham and Falls Creek, along with Charlotte Pass in New South Wales, all announced ski operations would end this weekend. The Victorian resort of Mt Baw Baw, the NSW resort at Selwyn, and Tasmania's Ben Lomond have already closed. Resorts typically aim to stay open until the first weekend of October.
Resorts blamed “challenging” weather conditions and a lack of snowfall. Two other major NSW resorts, Perisher and Thredbo, remain open.
Climate scientist blames El Niño and warming
“The season was frankly a shocker. This was the fourth disappointing season since 2020,” said Dr Andrew Watkins, a climate scientist and adjunct professor at Monash University, and a science advisor to the campaign group Protect our Winters. “The problems were El Niño and climate change. It was not that dry this year, but the problem was the warmth. The heat just did us in.”
Watkins, who is also a keen skier, said winter temperatures had been too high, and precipitation that might have fallen as snow instead fell as rain. “Rain is the natural enemy of a snowpack. It melts it and then washes it away,” he said.
Record warmth and rainfall data
Data from the Bureau of Meteorology show Falls Creek and Mt Hotham had their wettest winters in more than 30 years, but together with Mt Buller, they also had their warmest winters on record for average maximum and minimum temperatures.
Watkins said data from weather observations at Cabramurra in Kosciuszko National Park suggested alpine winters had warmed by about 2C since the 1960s. He said that temperature rise would have been the difference between precipitation falling as rain instead of snow. “It would have been a bumper season if it had been 50 years ago,” he said.
El Niño's role and future outlook
The El Niño currently in place in the Pacific Ocean can promote hotter and drier temperatures in Australia's southeast in winter and spring. This week, the bureau forecast the current El Niño would be the strongest on record, and Australian scientists said climate change had made the strength of the event six times more likely.
A bureau spokesperson said this winter's heat was consistent “with a developing strong El Niño” and the season had seen long periods of high pressure in the Tasman Sea that directed warmer air from the north over alpine regions. “But winter 2026 also experienced relatively warm nights, with cloud cover and moist soils resulting in less overnight cooling,” the spokesperson said. “This is in contrast with historical El Niño events. This is all occurring against the background of a globally warmer climate, with daily global surface air temperatures since June close to or above the record levels in 2024.”
New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria all recorded their hottest winters on record this year. In July, many ski resorts broke all-time heat records for the month, with temperatures during one hot spell up to 12C above average.
Industry response and snowmaking investments
Josh Elliott, chief executive of the representative body Snow Resorts Australia, said there was “no question it has been a challenging season for natural snowfall.” “This winter was shaped by a combination of abnormally warm weather and climatic variability, but it's important to remember that in any outdoor environment, that variability can result in some seasons being better than others. This is an abnormal season and shouldn't be considered in isolation as a reflection of what future seasons will look like.”
He said skiing, snowboarding and snowplay had still been available in NSW, Victoria and the ACT “since the June long weekend, with all resorts across Australia operating through the July school holidays and beyond.” “What this season has shown is the importance and value of the investment resorts have made in snowmaking, with underlying demand for snow holidays remaining strong through July and August.”
