Australian Weather

17 Jul 2026, 2:59AM UTC

Some of the heaviest rain in years has soaked parts of Western Australia over the last 24 hours, with more rain on the way on Friday and over the weekend. A rainband associated with a weakening cold front and low pressure trough delivered more than 50mm of rain to the southwest of WA during the 24 hours ending at 9am AWST on Friday, July 17. This included: 65 mm at a rain gauge near Harris Road, Bunbury 53 mm at Ferguson Valley, to the east of Bunbury, its heaviest rain in two years 51 mm at Old Mandurah Road near Ravenswood 39 mm at Badgingarra, its heaviest rain since August 2022 24 mm at Perth Airport, its heaviest rain in four months The trough that caused this rain will continue to trigger moderate to heavy falls over WA’s Central West, Lower West and Central Wheat Belt districts on Friday. According to a flood watch issued by the Bureau of Meteorology, this ongoing rain may cause localised flooding and overland inundation from late Friday, most likely in the Moore and Hill catchments, including Moora. This flooding may isolate some communities and homesteads in the region. Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the 24 hours ending at 8 pm AWST on Friday, July 17, 2026. Source: Weatherzone. Rain will continue over a broad area of the state’s west and southwest on Friday night into Saturday morning as the trough moves further inland and another cold front arrives from the Indian Ocean. By Sunday, the rainband is likely to extend across the lower Gascoyne and Goldfields districts, while a few follow-up showers linger in the state’s southwest. While there may be a few more light showers with the passage of a weak cold front on Monday and Tuesday, a large high pressure system should bring more settled weather for a few days starting from Wednesday next week.

16 Jul 2026, 6:28AM UTC

The 2026 Australian snow season has hit its highest snow depth yet after last weekend’s snowfalls, with hydro-electric operator Snowy Hydro measuring a snowpack 70.8 cm deep at Spencers Creek, roughly halfway between the NSW ski resorts of Perisher and Thredbo. But at slightly lower elevations in the mountains where you’d ordinarily expect at least a thin midwinter snow cover, there is currently no natural snow at all. Huge snow depth difference across just a few hundred metres of elevation Snowy Hydro has three sites where it has measured the snow depth at frequent intervals in the cooler months since 1954. Spencers Creek is the highest, at 1830 metres above sea level. Three Mile Dam, near Selwyn Snow Resort in NSW, is the lowest at 1460 metres. The contrast between the two could hardly be more stark at present. While Spencers Creek has 70.8 cm, Three Mile Dam has no measurable snow at all. Image: Snow depth to date in 2026 (dark blue) versus 2025 (light blue) at Spencers Creek (top) and Three Mile Dam (bottom). Source: Snowy Hydro. While Three Mile Dam recorded a depth of 4.8 cm after the first moderate snowfall of the ski season just before the King’s Birthday long weekend, that snow soon melted. After virtually no snowfalls occurred during the last three weeks of June across all elevations in the mainland high country, two snowy systems in the first half of July brought snowfalls of around 40 cm and then 30 cm to the upper slopes of the higher ski resorts. But those two snow events delivered almost nothing down low. While a few centimetres of snow fell to low elevations on Sunday morning in a brief blast of frigid polar air, the snow soon vanished as slightly warmer air moved in, with snowfalls turning to rain showers below about 1800 metres. How are conditions at the ski resorts now? As you’d expect with a 70-centimetre snowpack up high after last weekend’s snowfalls, more lifts have started to open across the mountains. In New South Wales, Perisher has 27 of its 45 lifts open, Thredbo has 11 of 15, Charlotte Pass has 4 of 5, while Selwyn has just 2 of 7 – both of them beginner lifts. In Victoria, Falls Creek has 11 of its 15 lifts open, Mt Buller has 7 of 19, Mt Hotham has 7 of 14, while Mt Baw Baw has one basic beginner lift open with almost no natural snow. It’s no coincidence that Baw Baw and Selwyn are both currently unable to open terrain away from the snowmaking zones, as they are the two lowest mainland ski resorts – meaning they have seen a lot more rain than snow of late. Image: The limited snow play and snow sports action is on the snowmaking snow at Mt Baw Baw, Victoria. Source: ski.com.au. Meanwhile in Tasmania, the state’s only commercial ski area Ben Lomond has 2 of 7 lifts open. A slick, icy playing surface One issue with the snow at present is that the surface is very icy, due to the current spell of warmish days with maximums a few degrees above zero which have been punctuated by cold nights. The snowpack has set so firm in some places that it has created the shiny effect visible in the foreground in the image of Thredbo below. Image: Sunny skies above the upper slopes of Thredbo on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. Source: Rusty J. So conditions are not ideal at present, although the good news is that there’s a decent base up high upon which fresh snow can accumulate during the next snowfall. Are significant snowfalls on the horizon? Snow-bearing cold fronts appear likely to be steered south of Australia during the next week to 10 days. The main positive for snow lovers is that conditions should be cold enough most nights for snowmaking. Early indications are that the pattern could break by the last few days of July, with a potential snowy system pushing through. Please check the Weatherzone snow page for the latest forecasts, live snow cam images and more.