Global Weekly Snow Roundup #317

• Australia receives fresh snowfall as most Southern Hemisphere resorts prepare to open for winter.
• New Zealand's 2026 ski season begins, with more resorts set to open next week.
• Around a dozen ski areas remain open across Asia, Europe and North America.
• The global total of open ski centres is expected to climb above 20 this weekend.

World Overview

Winter is here! …by the meteorological measure of the seasons, in the southern hemisphere. So far, unfortunately, there aren't a lot of signs of it, other than some good snowmaking-friendly temperatures at times up high. After some big autumn/fall dumps in the first half of May, it's been much drier in most ski regions south of the equator. The main exception has been Australia where resorts have seen fresh snowfall this week. It's early days anyway.

The 2026 season has started, kind of, in New Zealand with two resorts opening small snow areas created with all-weather snowmaking machines. This weekend sees most Australian resorts open, but it’s not yet clear how much terrain they’ll be able to unveil on day one. At least three Aussie areas now have all-weather snowmaking too. Afriski in Lesotho, now the only operating outdoor ski area in all of Africa, usually starts its season by the first weekend of the month, too, but has not yet announced its season start date.

In the northern hemisphere, meanwhile, it's now (meteorological) summertime. We remain at about a dozen ski areas open, a mix of 25-26 season survivors, still going, and a growing number of summer-only resorts starting their 2026 seasons.  Ski areas are still open in Asia, Europe and North America, the latter even reporting a few inches of snowfall this week, whilst Europe has been very hot initially but seen fresh snowfall on high glaciers in the Alps recent days too.

In Japan, Gassan (5/30cm / 2/12”) remains open for summer skiing but the amount of terrain available is falling fast as snow cover thaws from lower terrain.

So, the global picture is currently about 15 areas open in 10 countries on four continents. This weekend should get us back into the 20s for the number of centres open, and we may hit a dozen countries and five or possibly even six continents as the southern hemisphere’s 2026 season begins to pick up pace.