Major ski resorts across Australia are shutting down operations weeks ahead of schedule after a winter marked by record-breaking warmth and insufficient snowfall. Resorts in Victoria (Australia's southernmost mainland state), New South Wales, and Tasmania have either already closed or announced they will cease ski-lift operations this weekend, with venues typically aiming to remain open until early October. Climate scientists attribute the poor season to a combination of global heating and a strengthening El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific, which together drove temperatures high enough to turn snowfall into rain — stripping away what little snowpack had formed. Alpine winters in the region have warmed by approximately 2°C since the 1960s, and this year Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, and Mount Buller all recorded their warmest winters ever. The current El Niño is forecast to be the strongest on record, with researchers saying climate change made its intensity six times more likely.