The Weather Guy – The latest on this front…
Posted on 4 Jul, 2017
If we are being honest, over the past 24 hours, snow falls have been a bit disappointing, not because of a lack of moisture, but due to mild temperatures.
In the lead up to this front, models were suggesting much colder conditions but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Instead we saw a mix of wet snow and sleet on the upper slopes and soggy conditions down the bottom.
Not all is lost though…here’s this week’s updated forecast.
Wednesday:
Wednesday is still on track to be a good day, with some of the heaviest precipitation totals of the week. Temperatures look to be cool enough for between 5-15cm to fall to around 1500-1600m (recent model performance has been taken into account), with snow levels lowering in the days following.
Thursday and Friday:
As temperatures gradually drop towards the end of the week, we can expect light, residual snow flurries at times. Thursday should see a dusting to around 1400-1500m and again on Friday falling as low as 1300-1400m.
All in all, the upper slopes look to do well by the end of this week.
60-70% chance of 10-15cm, and a 40% chance of up to 25cm.
This weekend:
Another cold front looks to move over the region on the weekend maintaining good, cold conditions for light, isolated natural snowfalls.
At this stage there is some variation between models regarding the arrival time of the front, but we have fairly good confidence of picking up a dusting each day close to village level.
60% chance of 1-5cm.
In the classroom:
“What happened to the 60cm+ people have been talking about by the end of the week?” I hear you ask.
Well, there are a few important things to keep in mind when trawling the web or watching the news.
A typical snow bearing cold front usually drops the majority of its moisture western slopes (leading edge) of the Snowy Mountains before the remaining falls over the more protected slopes where the main NSW resorts are located. Check out the chart below which is a pretty typical set up.
It’s pretty easy to get excited by heavy ‘bulls eyes’ on the western side of the ranges, but it’s important to remember that some snow forecasters look at the Snowy Mountains as a whole, or forecast for multiple resorts.
Here at Thredbo, we have the benefit of forecasting for a single point location with any extra snow coming as a bonus!
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Thredbo sits on the traditional land of the Monero – Ngarigo people who have looked after this land, water and community for over 60,000 years. We thank them for all they have done and continue to do to look after their country, a special place which we all love and respect.