United States Show cave
Smoke Hole Caverns
12 °C inside, all year.
Saeriebearie&gregory · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 340 m.
The real relief above Smoke Hole Caverns, 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.
340m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
508m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
12 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 12 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 29 °C at the entrance, 17 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August. The wettest months are in May: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 4°-5°Jan
- 6°-4°Feb
- 11°0°Mar
- 18°6°Apr
- 23°12°May
- 27°16°Jun
- 29°18°Jul
- 29°17°Aug
- 26°14°Sep
- 19°8°Oct
- 12°2°Nov
- 6°-2°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 United States of America
Smoke Hole Caverns is a show cave in United States. The entrance is at 340 m. It has an underground river and stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket required
- Petersburgnearest town · 12 km in a straight line
- Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (SHD)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 86 km in a straight lineCar hire at CHO airport (Charlottesville)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.
The water
The North Fork South Branch Potomac River runs highest from March to June.
The North Fork South Branch Potomac River carries about 12 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from March to June.
- 10 m³/sJan
- 15 m³/sFeb
- 24 m³/sMar
- 37 m³/sApr
- 38 m³/sMay
- 26 m³/sJun
- 18 m³/sJul
- 5.9 m³/sAug
- 5.6 m³/sSep
- 8.8 m³/sOct
- 5.4 m³/sNov
- 6.5 m³/sDec
From about 5.4 m³/s in the lowest month to 38 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 760 km².
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmSmoke Hole Caverns
- 26campsites within 8 km
- 3hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmSmoke Hole Resort, Smoke Hole Cottages
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 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
- Petersburg12 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Smoke Hole Caverns.
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
Peakyas10 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 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 18 | 23 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 26 | 19 | 12 | 6 |
| Afternoon | 4 | 6 | 11 | 18 | 23 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 26 | 19 | 12 | 6 |
| Night | -5 | -4 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 14 | 8 | 2 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 74 | 76 | 83 | 102 | 123 | 116 | 118 | 90 | 92 | 87 | 72 | 87 |
| Rainy days | 13 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.6 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 5.9 | 6.4 | 7.6 | 7.7 | 7.2 | 6.5 | 4.8 | 4.1 | 2.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 15 | 16 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 14 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4 | 4 | -5 | 74 | 2.6 |
| Feb | 6 | 6 | -4 | 76 | 3.6 |
| Mar | 11 | 11 | 0 | 83 | 4.6 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 6 | 102 | 5.9 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 12 | 123 | 6.4 |
| Jun | 27 | 27 | 16 | 116 | 7.6 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 18 | 118 | 7.7 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 17 | 90 | 7.2 |
| Sep | 26 | 26 | 14 | 92 | 6.5 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 8 | 87 | 4.8 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 2 | 72 | 4.1 |
| Dec | 6 | 6 | -2 | 87 | 2.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (340 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 | 120% | 122% | 89% | 144% | 71% | 99% | 71% | 150% | 68% | 111% | 167% | 97% |
| 2021 | 70% | 109% | 65% | 77% | 69% | 91% | 54% | 117% | 144% | 90% | 37% | 53% |
| 2022 | 105% | 93% | 69% | 72% | 110% | 72% | 95% | 118% | 89% | 74% | 119% | 76% |
| 2023 | 71% | 90% | 86% | 61% | 71% | 81% | 85% | 100% | 98% | 61% | 87% | 102% |
| 2024 | 169% | 99% | 102% | 105% | 89% | 68% | 44% | 132% | 121% | 31% | 104% | 88% |
| 2025 | 81% | 117% | 53% | 83% | 168% | 125% | 130% | 46% | 51% | 70% | 76% | 57% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Smoke Hole Caverns
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 340 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Seneca Caverns
United States · 27 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 662 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Luray Caverns
United States · 77 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 297 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Shenandoah Caverns
United States · 60 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 314 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q7545849) · 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 |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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