20 May 2003

Local Hotham and Dinner Plain residents awoke to a world of WHITE this morning, with snow in every nook. With snow still falling and up to 5cm of settled snow in some areas, this could be the start of an early season.

The low pressure system that passed through Perth last week and contributed to the Tornado like storm in Bendigo on Monday finally made it's way to the Victorian High Country where it is predicted to stay for at least the next 24 hours.

Brett Cooper, Mount Hotham Lift Operations Manager said �According to the long range weather forecasts, this amount of snow was not predicted to fall this week. These conditions are ideal for preparing the ground in time for the season which is only two weeks away�.

Another strong low is predicted to pass across the Southern half of the country next week, hopefully bringing with it another snow dumping storm. Mr Cooper finished by saying that �If these conditions continue we could be in luck for another season similar to 2000.

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