Australian skiers don’t need a chart to tell them this season has felt thin. But after pulling and analyzing 73 years of Spencers Creek snow depth records — the benchmark measurement site for the Snowy Mountains, dating back to 1954 — the numbers confirm what the season has felt like on the ground: this is genuinely one of the worst seasons in Australian ski history.
We shone a light on the data from every angle, be it season maximum snow depth or peak season average, a metric we previously created which covers the peak season from mid-July through late August (Weeks 7-13 of the winter) to smooth out short-term noise and capture the heart of the season.
The 2026 season’s maximum snow depth reading so far — 94.5 cm (37.2 inches), recorded in mid-August — ranks as the third-lowest seasonal maximum in 73 years of records, behind only 2006 with 85.1 cm (33.5 inches) and 1982 with 91.0 cm (35.8 inches). Against the all-time average seasonal maximum of 195.5 cm, this year’s peak-to-date sits roughly 51% below normal. One important caveat: in 34 of the past 72 seasons — just under half — the year’s true maximum depth wasn’t actually reached until after this point in the calendar, during the September-October stretch still ahead. So while 2026’s maximum-to-date is genuinely one of the worst on record, there’s real historical precedent for that number still climbing before the season closes out. Although at the moment it seems very unlikely that there will be another cold snap as Sydney is basking in glorious 26°C (79°F) and might even crack 30°C (86°F) this weekend.
Using the peak-season-average metric, the 73-year average for this window is 139.0 cm (54.7 inches). For 2026, that average sits at just 76.9 cm (30.3 inches) or 44.7% below that long-term average. Even against just the last 15 years — a period that includes its own share of lean seasons — the average is 133.3 cm. This year is 42.3% below even that more recent, more modest bar. Ranked against every season since 1954, 2026 comes in as the 5th-worst on record, trailing only 1973, 1989, 1982, and 2006. More strikingly: this is the worst season in 20 years. The last time the peak-season-average was this low or lower was 2006. Every single season since then — nearly two decades of skiing — was better than what’s happened in 2026. Which explains why many are quick to call it the worst season on record — when it isn’t.
We also looked at other poor seasons, identified as seasons with below 140 cm (55 inches) maximum snow depth. We found 13 such seasons, ranging from 1954 to 2024 as well as this season. What becomes clear when charting those seasons is that there have been several seasons spread out across the last seven decades with slow starts and/or poor snow depth. Importantly, many fell before resorts introduced snow cannons, which enabled resorts to salvage recent poor seasons. In fact, during half of those poor seasons, the snow depth during the peak period was below the current season.
What’s however is shocking about 2026 is how many individual weeks this season hit rock bottom outright — though not all zeros are equally rare. Early-season zeros aren’t unusual on their own: Week 1 has recorded 0 cm in 13 other years since 1954, and Week 3 in six others, so a dry start to June is well within historical range. But the dry spell that should have broken by late June didn’t. Week 4 has only been recorded at zero twice before, in 1979 and 1991. And Week 5 — the final days of June into early July — has never once recorded 0 cm in 73 years of data, until this year. To be fair, the season recorded 14.4cm in Week 2, so things looked hopeful and the season did claw back some ground through July and into August. However, Weeks 6 through 12 were still well below average — mostly sitting in the bottom 5-20% of all recorded years — but they weren’t historic lows. For a few weeks in early-to-mid August, it briefly looked like the season might scrape into merely “bad” territory rather than “worst ever” territory.
But the August storms that were supposed to come arrived with more rain than snow and by Week 13 (August 24-30) the snow depth had collapsed back to 55.9 cm — again, the lowest amount ever recorded for that week in 73 years of records. So while this might not be the worst season ever, it is certainly the worst first week of September ever recorded. However, it is important to note, that the season is not over yet and, as of writing, still has roughly six weeks of its traditional window left to run, stretching into mid-October. Spencers Creek’s own history shows that late-season dumps do happen; several years in the record gained 50 to 100-plus centimeters in September and October alone. A run of good storms could still meaningfully close the gap, however with the weather patterns present, this is looking extremely unlikely and will be too late for resorts, many of which are wrapping up the season this weekend.
While it is tempting to reach for a single explanation — a particular El Niño or La Niña pattern — and tie a bow on why this season went so wrong, there are many factors at play. Long-range weather patterns like El Niño are well-documented drivers of drier, warmer conditions across southeastern Australia in strong years, and this has been a topic of real, current discussion this year. However, historical data also shows that Australian ski seasons are notoriously variable. The 2025 season saw more than twice the snow than this season. So if you want to show your support for Australian skiing in this harsh land that we call our home, the best thing you can do is get out there and enjoy what is left of the season.
