Global Weekly Snow Roundup #323
Weekly Snow News for World, updated 16 July 2026: New Zealand leads global snow conditions after major snowfall, Australia improves, Andes storms arrive, while Alpine valleys exceed +30°C (86°F) despite limited northern summer skiing.
- New Zealand now leads for snow depth and terrain open worldwide.
- Southern Hemisphere snow is improving, but conditions remain below normal.
- Only a handful of Northern Hemisphere resorts remain open in summer.
- Tignes closes early, while Saas-Fee opens this weekend.
World Overview
We have a change at last. Five weeks into the southern hemisphere’s 2026 season, several ski areas in New Zealand are now posting both the deepest snow cover and the most terrain open in the world. Mt Hutt and several other areas overtook Austria’s Hintertux last Friday, which until then had been posting the most terrain open anywhere in the world, despite it being mid-summer in the Alps with daytime highs hitting +20C.
The issue, with the unusually late switch of northern to southern hemisphere leading on open terrain, which usually happens in June, has been a lack of significant snowfall at any southern hemisphere ski regions. Unfortunately, that's still the case at some, but New Zealand at least has seen some big dumps over the past fortnight. There are also some improvements at least elsewhere, with Australia seeing some of its most significant snowfall of the past few months, leading to a few more lifts and runs opening, and there’s now a major snowstorm forecast in the Andes too that’s just getting underway.
Things are moving in the right direction, if still far from normal. In the northern hemisphere, it's been hot as you'd expect in mid-July, with the freezing point above most mountain tops, valley temperatures getting above +30C (+86F) in the Alps and western US. Around half a dozen ski areas are open for summer skiing and boarding. The last still operating in France, Tignes, is closing a few days earlier than planned, today rather than this Sunday, but a second Swiss option, Saas-Fee, should start its 26-27 season this Saturday. In North America, the last lift-served ski area operating, Timberline in Oregon, had also announced it planned to end its 25-26 season on 19th July, but as we publish this week's report, that's not yet been confirmed.
