Australian ski resorts smash July climate records with temperatures 12C above average

View from the Falls Creek snowcam on Monday shows lack of snow after a record was set for hottest daytime and night-time July temperatures on the weekend. Photograph: Falls Creek View image in fullscreen View from the Falls Creek snowcam on Monday shows lack of snow after a record was set for hottest daytime and night-time July temperatures on the weekend. Photograph: Falls Creek Australian ski resorts smash July climate records with temperatures 12C above average Resorts in NSW and Victoria face a warm and dry start to the season with only sporadic falls of natural snow in many alpine areas Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum temperatures up to 12C above average. Ski areas of Mount Hotham and Falls Creek set July records for their hottest daytime and night-time temperatures and Thredbo also set a new hottest July day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The records come after a challenging start for Australia’s ski season with dry and warm temperatures seeing only sporadic falls of natural snow in many alpine areas, leaving resorts to rely mostly on snow-making technology. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email The El Niño now in place in the tropical Pacific and the bureau’s long-range forecast both pointed to generally drier and warmer conditions for alpine regions this winter – a “bad combination” for snow. Climate scientists have long warned that global heating will create difficult conditions for Australia’s ski resorts. ‘We are waiting with bated breath’: experts alarmed as BoM says gathering El Niño could be strongest on record Read more Angus Hines, a senior forecaster at the bureau, said a slow-moving high pressure system – characterised by clear skies and descending dry air – had been a key to the spiking temperatures. He said this had also caused a “temperature inversion” where it was cooler closer to sea level than it was at higher altitudes. “These temperatures were a substantial departure from the norm and even from previous bursts of heat for July,” he said. “This highlights the likely issues we will have with ski seasons into the future with a warming climate.” He said warmer than usual temperatures would remain in ski areas until about Wednesday and there was a chance of a snow flurry at the weekend, before temperatures were expected to climb early next week. View image in fullscreen Snow melts at Mt Buffalo on the weekend. Photograph: Marni Cordell/The Guardian At Mount Hotham in Victoria’s alpine country, where the official temperature record goes back 36 years, the hottest July day was 8.7C in 1994. But that record has been broken three times this month. The mercury peaked at a record 12C on Sunday in a month when the average daily maximum temperature is zero . At Falls Creek, the highest July temperature had been 9.8C recorded in 1992. But this was eclipsed with 11.5C recorded on Sa