Global Weekly Snow Roundup #336

• Fresh snowfall on mountains across Europe.
• Austria overtakes New Zealand for the country with the most ski areas open.
• A dozen centres in six countries now open for 26-27 seasons in the northern hemisphere.
• Heavy snowfall continues to be reported in the Andes, where three centres are still open.
• Argentina's 2026 season is over.

We've officially switched to there being more ski areas open in the northern hemisphere than the southern once again. The number of resorts open in the southern hemisphere remained just ahead at the weekend whilst those in the northern crept into double figures, but come Monday, despite several resorts in Chile announcing season extensions, the last centre closed in Argentina, and we were down to single figures.

Despite ever more signs of winter in the northern hemisphere, including peaks across Europe, North America and Japan seeing dustings of white down to lower elevations, in terms of significant snowfall, the southern hemisphere remains ahead, with resorts in Chile posting still more significant accumulations over the past seven days.

In terms of what's open in the northern hemisphere, three more Austrian glacier resorts opened at the weekend, taking the total with their lifts spinning up to five, overtaking New Zealand as the country with the most centres open as more resorts closed there. Bases remain thin on glaciers and terrain open more limited than usual, albeit still early October after the long, hot summer. However, there was some good news with snow falling to 1600m altitudes in the Alps, the lowest level so far this autumn, and high terrain above 3,000m seeing 30cm (8") or more to set things off right.

Snowfall was also reported over a wide area in Scandinavia, where four centres are already open (one thanks to its glacier, the other three thanks to their snow farming efforts) in Finland, Norway and Sweden. There was also snowfall reported on Scottish and Spanish peaks.

The only country besides Chile in the southern hemisphere where the lifts are still turning is New Zealand, where three centres are still going for 2026. That's despite the usual weather mix of sunshine and showers; those showers sometimes bring rain and sleet at lower levels now, where temperatures have climbed to +15C some afternoons. They've still been dropping sub-zero overnight at altitude, though, for classic springtime freeze-thaw conditions.