France Cave
Fontaine de Fontestorbes
12 °C inside, all year.
The original uploader was Audouy at French Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 537 m.
The real relief above Fontaine de Fontestorbes, 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.
537m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
372m
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 July the afternoon reaches 29 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 8°0°Jan
- 9°0°Feb
- 13°2°Mar
- 16°5°Apr
- 20°9°May
- 26°13°Jun
- 29°15°Jul
- 29°15°Aug
- 24°11°Sep
- 20°8°Oct
- 13°4°Nov
- 9°1°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.
Spring in France
Fontaine de Fontestorbes is a cave in France. The entrance is at 537 m. It has an underground river.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Bélestanearest town · 1.4 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.5 km from the entrance
- Carcassonne Salvaza Airport (CCF)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 47 km in a straight lineCar hire at CCF airport (Carcassonne)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 Le Grand Hers runs highest from November to May.
The Le Grand Hers carries about 1.5 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from November to May.
- 2.5 m³/sJan
- 2.2 m³/sFeb
- 2.5 m³/sMar
- 2.7 m³/sApr
- 2.6 m³/sMay
- 1.5 m³/sJun
- 0.6 m³/sJul
- 0.4 m³/sAug
- 0.6 m³/sSep
- 1.3 m³/sOct
- 2.4 m³/sNov
- 2.1 m³/sDec
From about 0.38 m³/s in the lowest month to 2.7 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 133 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.
- 5other cave entrances within 3 kmTrou des Corbeaux, Gouffre des Œillets, Trou du Vent and 2 more
- 2springs within 2 kmFontaine intermittente de Fontestorbes
- 3viewpoints within 3 kmBelvédère du Bois Joli, Trou des Corbeaux
- 3marked hiking routes within 3 kmDes Vosges aux Pyrénées, variante, Vallée de l'Hers, Tour du Pays d'Olmes
- 10car parks within 2 km
- 10information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 1bus stops within 2 km
- 8campsites within 8 kmVillage des Bons-Hommes Camping, Camping de Lavelanet "Le Pré Cathare", Camping municipal le Calcat and 5 more
- 16hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmGite Lou Sicret, Gîte du Rasteille, La Taillade de Montségur and 13 more
- 3restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 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
- Bélesta1.4 km in a straight line
- Lavelanet7.8 km in a straight line
- Villeneuve-d'Olmes8.8 km in a straight line
- Laroque-d'Olmes9.8 km in a straight line
- Chalabre12 km in a straight line
- Ax-les-Thermes20 km in a straight line
- Quillan21 km in a straight line
- Saint-Paul-de-Jarrat22 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Fontaine de Fontestorbes.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Lakeyas1 lakes 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 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 24 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 26 | 29 | 29 | 24 | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| Night | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 76 | 60 | 64 | 76 | 82 | 56 | 47 | 50 | 53 | 68 | 84 | 67 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.8 | 4.6 | 6.0 | 6.8 | 7.3 | 8.7 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 7.4 | 5.4 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 11 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | 0 | 76 | 2.8 |
| Feb | 9 | 9 | 0 | 60 | 4.6 |
| Mar | 13 | 13 | 2 | 64 | 6.0 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 5 | 76 | 6.8 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 9 | 82 | 7.3 |
| Jun | 26 | 26 | 13 | 56 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 15 | 47 | 9.0 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 15 | 50 | 8.4 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 11 | 53 | 7.4 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 8 | 68 | 5.4 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 4 | 84 | 3.5 |
| Dec | 9 | 9 | 1 | 67 | 3.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (537 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 | 89% | 55% | 141% | 143% | 119% | 177% | 83% | 118% | 174% | 201% | 68% | 205% |
| 2021 | 99% | 77% | 29% | 43% | 61% | 139% | 89% | 50% | 155% | 58% | 127% | 123% |
| 2022 | 54% | 34% | 93% | 79% | 37% | 77% | 68% | 86% | 143% | 22% | 115% | 49% |
| 2023 | 96% | 36% | 55% | 61% | 98% | 196% | 86% | 99% | 75% | 90% | 123% | 95% |
| 2024 | 53% | 120% | 124% | 70% | 95% | 104% | 67% | 72% | 160% | 175% | 43% | 76% |
| 2025 | 37% | 17% | 124% | 49% | 44% | 31% | 90% | 93% | 76% | 17% | 47% | 57% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Fontaine de Fontestorbes
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 537 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Cave of Niaux
France · 28 km
- —Depth
- 2.0 kmGalleries
- 718 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Rivière souterraine de Labouiche
France · 31 km
- —Depth
- 10 kmGalleries
- 447 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3076306) · 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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