Major Snowstorm Hits New Zealand
Major Snowstorm Hits New Zealand
Published : 12-Jul-2022 09:09
After a rollercoaster week of mountain weather, many ski areas in New Zealand are currently seeing a major storm hit bringing at least half-a-metre (20 inches) of snow so far, with more to come.
Many ski area closed on Tuesday ahead of the forecast storm, with others opting to open in the morning but closing at lunchtime. The snow is still coming down but the first rough assessments are of 40-60cm so far for many.
New Zealand's ski season got off to a slightly less promising start than Australia's a month ago when the first season for three years when travel was relatively straight forward again between the two countries began.
Australian ski areas saw huge snowfalls perfectly timed for the season start with many like Perisher opening a week early. Since then it has been fairly plain sailing with no more huge falls but good cover and everything open now at leading resorts like Falls Creek, Mt Buller and Thredbo as we're in peak season.
New Zealand has seen more weather extremes with periods when it has been too warm and periods of heavy snowfall right through autumn and the start of winter. The end of last week saw warm, wet weather close some centres and this has also delayed the full opening of the country's largest resorts. Mt Ruapehu on the north Island. However its dumping now here too.
Several of the country's centre's are also starting to post very healthy snow depths to see out the season, lower base nearing a metre, upper nearing two metres at Treble Cone for example, among the five best in the world right now.
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