Poland Jan Kućmierz · Attribution
The descent
The entrance, at 1,793 m.
The real relief above Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
24km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
1,793m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
0°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
323m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
0 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 0 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 15 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- -8°-15°Jan
- -7°-14°Feb
- -3°-11°Mar
- 4°-5°Apr
- 9°0°May
- 13°4°Jun
- 15°6°Jul
- 15°5°Aug
- 10°1°Sep
- 4°-4°Oct
- -2°-8°Nov
- -7°-13°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in Poland
Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna is a cave in Poland. It has 24 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 1,793 m. It has several entrances and long galleries.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Kościeliskonearest town · 6.2 km in a straight line
- Tichá dolinanearest viewpoint · 0.6 km from the entrance
- Poprad-Tatry Airport (TAT)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 30 km in a straight lineCar hire at TAT airport (Poprad)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 119other cave entrances within 3 kmJaskinia pod Wantą, Jaskinia Litworowa Wielka, Jaskinia Marmurowa and 116 more
- 4springs within 2 kmRatuszowe Źródło, Občasná vyvieračka and 2 more
- 79sinkholes within 3 km
- 13viewpoints within 3 kmTomanová, Tichá dolina and 11 more
- 33marked hiking routes within 3 kmCzerwona Przełęcz - Sarnia Skała, Hala Kondratowa - Przełęcz pod Kopą Kondracką, Nędzówka - Przysłop Miętusi and 30 more
- 3named waterfalls within 4 kmSiklawica, Tomanovský vodopád, Sikawka
- 5campsites within 8 kmCampingplatz Willa Zakopane, Polana Rogoźniczańska PZA, Pod Krokwią and 2 more
- 444hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmSzałas pod Szymoszkową, Hajduk, Halit and 441 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Kościelisko6.2 km in a straight line
- Zakopane6.8 km in a straight line
- Murzasichle11 km in a straight line
- Witów12 km in a straight line
- Poronin12 km in a straight line
- Biały Dunajec16 km in a straight line
- Bukowina Tatrzańska18 km in a straight line
- Pribylina18 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Cascadyas1 waterfalls within 5 km
Lakeyas1 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas178 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | -8 | -7 | -3 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 4 | -2 | -7 |
| Afternoon | -8 | -7 | -3 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 4 | -2 | -7 |
| Night | -15 | -14 | -11 | -5 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 1 | -4 | -8 | -13 |
| Rain (mm) | 66 | 64 | 69 | 69 | 119 | 127 | 139 | 102 | 89 | 78 | 70 | 65 |
| Rainy days | 14 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 15 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 15 |
| Sun hours/day | 1.7 | 2.9 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 6.8 | 7.0 | 5.1 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 1.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 32 | 37 | 26 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 21 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -8 | -8 | -15 | 66 | 1.7 |
| Feb | -7 | -7 | -14 | 64 | 2.9 |
| Mar | -3 | -3 | -11 | 69 | 4.4 |
| Apr | 4 | 4 | -5 | 69 | 5.7 |
| May | 9 | 9 | 0 | 119 | 6.2 |
| Jun | 13 | 13 | 4 | 127 | 6.5 |
| Jul | 15 | 15 | 6 | 139 | 6.8 |
| Aug | 15 | 15 | 5 | 102 | 7.0 |
| Sep | 10 | 10 | 1 | 89 | 5.1 |
| Oct | 4 | 4 | -4 | 78 | 3.5 |
| Nov | -2 | -2 | -8 | 70 | 1.7 |
| Dec | -7 | -7 | -13 | 65 | 1.1 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,793 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 48% | 168% | 80% | 35% | 92% | 152% | 108% | 101% | 147% | 213% | 44% | 119% |
| 2021 | 137% | 119% | 75% | 133% | 136% | 39% | 106% | 180% | 85% | 26% | 79% | 107% |
| 2022 | 109% | 118% | 61% | 135% | 54% | 40% | 87% | 77% | 158% | 57% | 75% | 127% |
| 2023 | 204% | 117% | 102% | 120% | 104% | 111% | 75% | 162% | 95% | 146% | 182% | 155% |
| 2024 | 147% | 146% | 104% | 130% | 74% | 108% | 69% | 69% | 142% | 75% | 49% | 50% |
| 2025 | 90% | 35% | 83% | 119% | 89% | 53% | 93% | 69% | 126% | 126% | 176% | 25% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna
Poland
- —Depth
- 24 kmGalleries
- 1,793 mEntrance altitude
- 0 °CInside, all year
Belianska Cave
Slovakia · 28 km
- —Depth
- 3.8 kmGalleries
- 890 mEntrance altitude
- 5 °CInside, all year
Važecká Cave
Slovakia · 21 km
- —Depth
- 0.5 kmGalleries
- 784 mEntrance altitude
- 6 °CInside, all year
Dobšinská Ice Cave
Slovakia · 50 km
- —Depth
- 1.5 kmGalleries
- 850 mEntrance altitude
- 0 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3490271) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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