CANBERRANS heading to the snowfields these school holidays, fear not: white stuff is on the way, meteorologists and resorts have been saying this past week.

So far, warm winter temperatures and a lack of natural falls have made for a dismal start to the snow season with patchy cover at both Perisher Blue and Thredbo resorts.

Read the snow reports on the state of the slopes and the buzzword this year appears to be ''snowplay'': what you can do for recreation when there's not enough cover to go skiing.

Many businesses in the region have also noticed slumps in trade from last year, causing many to draw parallels with the notoriously slow 2006 season.

Despite the mounting panic of holidaymakers, Weatherzone meteorologist James Luffman said there was still plenty of hope, with some previous successful seasons starting as late as mid-July.

As an added sweetener a good dump could come as soon as tomorrow.

''June has been warm and humid, with maybe not as much snow on the ground as we would like to see,'' he said. ''However, it is not unheard of for seasons to start late: for example, this happened in 1991 and it was a very good season.

''There is definitely hope yet.''

It was also not unusual for snow seasons to start slightly later after La Nina weather systems, which often brought warmer temperatures.

These temperatures had also hindered snow-making efforts.

Perisher Blue spokesman Neil Thew said the resort had received some natural falls over the last few days, taking the depth of cover to about 9cm.

''It [the resort] is looking quite white, which has certainly lifted spirits,'' he said.

''Hopefully this is the start of many fresh snowfalls.''

He said a big fall had been predicted around July 10.

''It really depends year on year what nature throws at us,'' he said.

Thredbo spokeswoman Susie Diver said falls had also been received there and, while patchy, cover was about 9.3cm. More falls are tipped for Thredbo tomorrow.

Temperatures are also starting to cool down a positive sign, Mrs Diver said, and locals were holding their breath for good heavy falls.