Several of Australia’s major ski resorts are preparing to end their 2026 winter operations weeks earlier than usual, with unusually high temperatures, limited snowfall and the influence of a strengthening El Niño event creating increasingly difficult conditions for the country’s alpine tourism industry. Some resorts are expected to close as much as a month ahead of their traditional season-ending dates, raising fresh concerns about the long-term future of skiing in Australia as global temperatures continue to rise.
Resorts across New South Wales and Victoria have been particularly affected by the unusual winter. Mount Buller, Mount Hotham, Falls Creek, Charlotte Pass, Mount Baw Baw, Selwyn and Ben Lomond have either already ended their ski operations or announced plans to shut earlier than expected. Most Australian ski resorts generally aim to continue operating until early October, but the lack of durable snow cover has made it increasingly difficult to maintain normal services.
The current season is being described as one of the weakest in recent years and represents the fourth particularly poor Australian ski season since 2020. While snowfall can vary considerably from year to year, climate scientists say the latest conditions are becoming harder to dismiss as ordinary weather fluctuations. Instead, they point to the combination of a warming climate and a powerful El Niño event as evidence of the growing pressure on Australia’s alpine environments.
Dr Andrew Watkins, a climate scientist, said the problem was not simply a lack of precipitation. In some areas, winter rainfall was actually unusually high, but temperatures were sufficiently elevated for much of that precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow. Falls Creek and Mount Hotham, for example, experienced exceptionally wet conditions while simultaneously recording their warmest average temperatures.
The contrast illustrates one of the biggest challenges confronting Australian ski operators. Snow-making equipment can compensate to some extent when natural snowfall is limited, but it requires sufficiently cold temperatures and cannot completely offset prolonged warm and rainy periods. Rain can also rapidly erode existing snow cover, leaving ski runs exposed and forcing resorts to concentrate operations on limited areas.
The difficult conditions follow a series of extraordinary temperature records in Australia’s alpine regions. In July, Mount Hotham recorded temperatures significantly above its historical average, while Falls Creek also experienced unprecedented warmth. At several resorts, temperatures climbed into ranges normally associated with spring rather than the middle of winter. Earlier records had already raised concerns about what increasingly warm winters could mean for Australia’s snow-dependent tourism sector.
Scientists say the country’s alpine areas have already warmed by roughly 2C since the 1960s. That increase has significant consequences for snowfall because relatively small changes around the freezing point can determine whether precipitation arrives as snow or rain. As average temperatures rise, snow seasons can become shorter, snowpacks thinner and the reliability of natural snowfall increasingly uncertain.
The developing El Niño is adding another layer of concern. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has warned that the current event could become the strongest El Niño on record. El Niño typically brings warmer and drier conditions to parts of southern and eastern Australia, potentially worsening conditions for ski resorts already struggling with elevated temperatures.
According to the Bureau, ocean temperatures in the central Pacific have been rising at an exceptional rate, and forecasts indicate that the event could intensify further. Scientists have also warned that climate change is making an event of this magnitude more likely. The combination of natural climate variability and human-caused global warming could therefore produce increasingly challenging conditions for Australia’s alpine regions.
Despite the difficult season, the ski industry continues to attract strong public interest, with operators investing in snow-making technology and other measures to keep slopes open whenever conditions permit. However, the prospect of increasingly early closures presents a significant economic challenge for businesses that depend on a relatively short winter season.
For Australia’s ski industry, the latest season is therefore more than a disappointing year for snowfall. It is another warning that climate change is altering the conditions on which the country’s alpine tourism economy has traditionally depended. With temperatures continuing to rise and El Niño expected to intensify, scientists and industry officials face growing questions over how long Australia’s existing ski season can remain viable in its current form.
