What is the temperature in Carlsbad Cavern Caves?

Answer 1

Typically, the temperature within any cave remains relatively constant despite changing seasons and temperatures outside. A cave's temperature often reflects the average temperature of the land in which it exists, with deviation from that based on the elevation and size of the cave's entrance(s).

The temperature of the caves within Carlsbad Caverns National Park ranges from 56°F (13°C) inside Carlsbad Cavern, the park's most famous tour cave, up to about 70°F. Within the park's large caves which extend to depths over 1000 feet (300 meters) from the surface, there may be a difference in temperature depending on the depth. For example, the temperature of the Big Room of Carlsbad Cavern, at a depth of 750 feet (about 230 meters) below the surface, is 56°F (13°C). (The Big Room, an area of 8.2 acres, is the most famous and most visited part of the cave.) But, in the cave chamber at the deepest known point of Carlsbad Cavern, called the Lake of the Clouds, an area not open to the public for several reasons, is 68°F. Without going into too much detail, the Big Room is unusually cold for a cave in the Guadalupe Mountains and that's because the enormous natural opening and the vast size of the rooms allows cold winter air to sink into the depths and becomes "trapped".

Outdoors, Carlsbad Caverns National Park's average annual high temperature is 74°F and the average annual low temperature is 50°F with a mean annual temperature of 63°F. (In the summer,average highs are in the 90°s F, in the winter the average highs are in the 50°s and 60°s F.)