I have a chart somewhere that shows the monthly plot of snow depth over about 50 years at a NSW site and while the years can differ enormously, I've often wondered how closely connected are the snow seasons for NSW-Victoria and Tasmania. The change over time in the NSW snow record is one of annual decline and this is no better illustrated than here:
https://www.sbs.com.au/interactive/2015 ... now-depth/. Both very impressive and very alarming!
Forty years ago I was speaking to an old-timer at Harrietville, Vic. and he told me how the town always had winter snow but by then it was becoming a rare event for snow to stay on the ground unmelted.
sloz wrote:But there is nothing like first hand experience to acknowledge that this change is taking place.
A few years ago I found out that the BOM in Tassie does nowhere record snow depth as I was trying to follow this up. The NSW records are by the Hydro people and the longer historic record is only told in the diaries of locals and in press reports.
Week 2 of August 1970 had deep snow all along the Overland Track and even in Derwent Bridge while 1971 had good late snow after early August. The first time I ever saw Snow was in late February 1970 on the western slopes of Cradle Mountain and in fact, it did snow lightly that afternoon. Also of possible interest, there was a small but deep 'ice field' in the lee of a large scoop in the side of a low cliff that we passed on the way to the summit of Frenchmans Cap in the last week of Feb 1972 and I actually wondered that it may hang on till winter and be 'permanent' snow.