Perisher in New South Wales is the last Australian ski resort with a few ski lifts still operating, and it has announced plans to try to stay open until next Friday, September 25, despite a record low snow depth for mid-September at nearby Spencers Creek.

This will be good news for Queensland travellers who are venturing south for the first week of the Queensland school holidays – with Queensland public schools breaking up this Friday afternoon.

It is also testament to the efforts of the Perisher snowmaking team, who have taken advantage of three sub-zero nights this week after a very light natural snowfall to activate the resort's snow guns at a time of year when they are normally switched off for the season.

Snowy Hydro records snow depth of just 10.5 cm at Spencers Creek

Hydro-electric operator Snowy Hydro has measured snow depths since 1954 at three sites in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales. This data set is regarded as the most comprehensive historical gauge of snow seasons in the Australian Alps.

The highest Snowy Hydro site is Spencers Creek, at an elevation of 1830 metres, roughly halfway between the two largest NSW ski areas of Perisher and Thredbo. The latest Spencers Creek reading, taken this Thursday, September 17, was 10.5 cm.

The image above shows a comparison of Spencers Creek snow depths in the 2026 Australian snow season (to date) alongside the complete 2006 season.

2006 registered the lowest peak depth on record of 85.1 cm, and while the 2026 season slightly exceeded that mark with a reading of 94.5 cm on August 13, this season started later and is ending earlier.

2026 Australian snow depth historically low at lower elevations

The picture of the 2026 Australian snow season is even more stark at Deep Creek, the mid-elevation Snowy Hydro site, at an elevation of 1620 metres.

Image: Comparison of the 2006 (light blue) and 2026 (dark blue) snow seasons at Deep Creek, NSW. Source: Snowy Hydro.

Not only has the 2026 season been considerably shorter than the meagre 2006 snow season, the peak depth this year was just 8.3 cm compared to 23.2 cm in 2006. This was Deep Creek's lowest measured season peak on record.

The lowest Snowy Hydro site, Three Mile Dam at 1460 metres, also had its thinnest snowpack on record, with a 2026 season high recorded at just 5.5 cm on August 11.

While debates will rage about which Australian snow season was the absolute worst since Snowy Hydro regularly started collecting data in 1954, 2026 was among the poorest on record by any measure.

Why has the 2026 Australian snow season been so poor?

The ongoing strong El Niño was a factor, as this major climate driver tends to suppress cloud and rainfall across large parts of Australia, especially the eastern half, which in turn often leads to warmer daytime temperatures.

Unseasonable weather patterns also brought unusually warm air masses to southeastern Australia several times this winter, especially during June when the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) was in a strongly positive phase.

The SAM is a climate driver which influences the north-south displacement of the belt of powerful winds which flow year-round from west to east over the Southern Ocean, relative to where it would normally be positioned at a given time of year.

The strongly positive SAM in June meant that that the belt of westerlies was further south than usual, which resulted in fewer cold fronts reaching southeastern Australia than you'd typically expect.

Above-average sea surface temperatures around Australia also played a role in the diminished snowpack throughout the season, as air absorbs some of the heat when it passes over warmer-than-average water.

The global and localised warming trend associated with climate change was another ingredient which helped turn what might have been a mediocre snow season by historical standards into one of the worst on record.

Are any fresh snowfalls on the horizon for the rest of September?

Image: The mostly bare slopes of Thredbo on Thursday, September 17, 2026, a time of year when at least the upper half of the mountain is usually still skiable. Source: Rusty J.

At this stage, there are no snow-bearing system appearing on either the short-term forecast charts or the charts extending out to the end of the month generated my various international and Australian models.

Perisher is likely to see daytime maximums above 10°C for the next week, while nights cold enough for snowmaking look unlikely, meaning the current conditions will be about as good as it gets for the remainder of the 2026 season on the five remaining open ski lifts.

Please check the latest forecasts, live cam images and more on the Weatherzone snow page.