Tut tut Sandy, you are giving the punters the false impression that 2010 is on the up and up in the above graph when we all can read Snowy Hydro and see that it is going DOWN since 15th July. Alas no volcanoes to kill Philippinos but make 1992 a good season. If June 91 eruption of Mt Pinatubo how long did it take stratospheric aerosols to cross equator and affect 91 season. Saw Bishop's ring from PB in 92 to confirm aerosols in 92. And 1990 was good before any eruption.

Also 84 and 91/92 all pre global warming. There's bushfires around Moscow this week- who'd have thought it.... W

Well currently as of today we 35cm. Comparing to other seasons in the last 30 years or so with similar depths at the end of July we have:

2006 - 57cm (kicked on to be worst season on record with max of ~85cm))
2001 - 62cm (kicked on nicely in August to amx of ~195cm before early finish in Sept)
1989 - 35cm (good August to a max of 141cm)
1984 - 38cm (what we want this year, huge August maxing out at 234cm)
1982 - 48cm (almost as bad as 2006)
1976 - 51cm (161cm peak well into Sept after heavy snowfalls in early August)

Out of 6 years highlighted 2 sucked and four went on to provide some fairly decent skiing in the latter part of the season. Seems like good odds to me!

As is often stated the biggest seasons are usually associated with neutral conditions (e.g '81).

'91 and '92 were seasons with massive global cooling called by Pinatubo.