Duuummmmmmmmmmpp

Further updated:

Snowy Hydro have now reported 88 cm net snow depth gain (at Spencers Creek near Charlotte Pass, midway between Perisher Valley and Thredbo) for the week ending 26 June — not a record but a major dump by our standards.  I say >50 cm week-on-week snow depth gain at Spencers Creek is officially an Aussie “dump”.  The record weekly snow depth gain there was 109.5 cm for the week ending 8 August 1996.

The Perisher Valley automatic weather station precipitation chart for the event is simply stunning; I hope BOM don’t mind if I snapshot it for posterity.  Total water-equivalent precipitation over 3 days was 170 mm.  The last 30-40 mm of that would have been rain at lower levels, but all of the rest was snow, with just an hour or so’s gap in over two days continuous fall:

For comparison, the only other reliable and publicly available snow precipitation gauge in Australia — at Rocky Valley Dam near Falls Creek — also recorded 170 mm* for the three days to 9:00am 26 June. Some thoughts about the challenges of accurate snow precipitation measurement were included in this post last year.

Here’s where the dump fits:

When the dumps happen

(* Direct linking to data doesn’t work; search there for “Falls Creek” to find it.)