Australia’s Alps just had their best start to a snow season in 54 years, according to this year’s first official natural snow depth measurement at Spencers Creek in the NSW Snowy Mountains.

Snowy Hydro has been manually measuring the natural snow depth at Spencers Creek in NSW since 1954. This site, located at 1,830 metres above sea level between Perisher and Charlotte Pass, is widely regarded as Australia’s most reliable historical record of natural snow depths in the Aussie Alps.

So, how much snow is on the ground?

This week’s measurement was always going to be a big one, thanks to a procession of cold fronts that delivered multiple rounds of snow in late May and early June.

Image: Deep snow at Thredbo, NSW in the opening week of June, 2022. Source: Thredbo Resort.

According to data published on Snowy Hydro’s website, the natural snow depth at Spencers Creek on Thursday, June 15 was 118.3 cm. This is the highest snow depth measured at the site this early in the season since 1968.

In 2021, this snow depth wasn’t reached until late-July, so we are currently running more than one month ahead of last winter based on the raw snow depth.

Image: A golden sunrise over the snowy slopes at Perisher, NSW on June 14. Source: @explore_with_jodie / Instagram

Image: Still plenty of snow left on the slopes and the buses at Smiggin Holes this week. Source: @the_oyster_farmers_daughter / Instagram

This week’s impressive snow depth reading is in line with other cold weather statistics that Weatherzone published earlier this week, including Canberra just enduring its coldest start to winter since 1964.

Stay up to date with our news page for regular updates on Aussie snow depths throughout the 2022 snow season.