I'll bet most of us have been at the Historic Entrance on a couple early mornings when the temperature and humidity were such that a fog formed over the sink:
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Interestingly, last Sunday, conditions caused that fog to be sucked all the way down to the Rotunda Room, and a local TV station made the phenomenon into a brief news item:
MAMMOTH CAVE, Ky. (WKRN) ¨C A group of visitors at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky got to see a rare sight on Sunday when a thick cloud of fog formed underground in the Rotunda at Mammoth Cave.
Molly Schroer, the Public Information Officer at Mammoth Cave National Park, says this rare phenomenon only happens when conditions are exactly right, and it doesn¡¯t last long.
¡°It was only in there a short time, about 10 minutes. And then the cold cave air came in and dissipated it and it went away,¡± she said.
Caves have their own natural airflows, and in the summer you usually have cool cave air pushing out of the entrance. But on Sunday, that airflow reversed.
¡°It was a nice warm summer day; a storm came through that dropped the temperature, lowered the pressure, and instead of pushing air out, the air got sucked into the cave,¡± Schroer said.
(screen shot from the trail as you enter the Rotunda Room)
Gary Gibula
