Australia's main ski resorts are severely depleted of their snow bases, hamstrung in their operations by a lack of recent snow.

Victoria and NSW's alpine areas have received little in the way of snow since a strong cold front brought good falls in time for the official opening of the ski season earlier this month. The onset of school holidays this week means the snow fields are under massive pressure to deliver a winter wonderland.

But with the weather gods apparently disinterested - and El Nino still in full swing - the meteorological numbers for the Australian Alps paint a depressing picture.

Snow is predicted to fall in Victoria's alpine region on Thursday - and perhaps a dusting on Friday morning, a 20 per cent chance according to the Bureau of Meteorology - but it will need to be a significant dump to reverse the fortunes of a rapidly slumping ski season.

According to Ski.com.au, Falls Creek has four out of 15 lifts operating and 3 out of 77 runs open.

Mt Hotham has four out of its 14 lifts running and eight out of 65 runs open,

Mt Buller has two runs open of 41 - Bourke Street and Little Buller Spur.

The situation is much worse at Mt Baw Baw, which has four of its seven lifts operating but none of its 16 runs are open.

The last snowfall in Victoria was on June 21 but the falls were not enough to significantly alter the natural base of the ski fields.

Snowmaking operations have managed to build a base of 25cm at Falls Creek and 20cm at Mt Hotham.

Meanwhile, in Melbourne the run of cold and foggy mornings is set to continue with a minimum of seven degrees forecast for Wednesday morning and a meagre 14 degree maximum for the day.  Areas of fog are set to blanket the northeast suburbs in the early morning with light winds becoming northwesterly 15 to 25 km/h in the middle of the day.