Trnovski Gozd (Trnovo Forest) "Paradana/Ledena Jama" (Ice Cave); Northern Coastal Karst Region/Severna Primorska, Nova Gorica, Slovenija
18-august-2021: this is the bottom of a marked "dolina" (-110m with respect to the surrounding plateu), that is a small, but deep, rounded basin, where a cave begins, "the Ice Cave", about 4km long.
It is an evident Karst phenomenon which, thanks to the position and altitude (1100m a.s.l. on the edge of the forestal plateau), in an area (which was) very snowy, represented a real freezer for the conservation of snow and ice, maintaining temperatures around at 0°C, even in the height of summer.
Once upon a time tons of ice were extracted every year, which ended up (as "natural coolers" for perishable goods) on the markets of Trieste and Gorizia, but, it is said, they reached Egypt.
With Global Warming almost everything has changed and even the lowest snowfield in Europe (up to 90s; 990m a.s.l., certainly with different characteristics from the snowfields in the mountain gullies) has definitively disappeared.
Compared to "Smrekova Draga", here the air is never stirred, so even in this hot summer, on August 18th, I measured just 2.5°C at the entrance of the cave, which has a particular effect against 25°C of the upper part, in a forest with a alpine climate however...
This temperature, combined with much less frequent snowfall than in the past, means that now there is no longer either ice or snow on the bottom, but the vegetational inversion remains, more rapid and marked than that of the wide "Valley of Spruce trees", with only lichens and mosses in the photographed part.
Trnovski Gozd (Trnovo Forest) "Paradana/Ledena Jama" (Ice Cave); Northern Coastal Karst Region/Severna Primorska, Nova Gorica, Slovenija
18-august-2021: this is the bottom of a marked "dolina" (-110m with respect to the surrounding plateu), that is a small, but deep, rounded basin, where a cave begins, "the Ice Cave", about 4km long.
It is an evident Karst phenomenon which, thanks to the position and altitude (1100m a.s.l. on the edge of the forestal plateau), in an area (which was) very snowy, represented a real freezer for the conservation of snow and ice, maintaining temperatures around at 0°C, even in the height of summer.
Once upon a time tons of ice were extracted every year, which ended up (as "natural coolers" for perishable goods) on the markets of Trieste and Gorizia, but, it is said, they reached Egypt.
With Global Warming almost everything has changed and even the lowest snowfield in Europe (up to 90s; 990m a.s.l., certainly with different characteristics from the snowfields in the mountain gullies) has definitively disappeared.
Compared to "Smrekova Draga", here the air is never stirred, so even in this hot summer, on August 18th, I measured just 2.5°C at the entrance of the cave, which has a particular effect against 25°C of the upper part, in a forest with a alpine climate however...
This temperature, combined with much less frequent snowfall than in the past, means that now there is no longer either ice or snow on the bottom, but the vegetational inversion remains, more rapid and marked than that of the wide "Valley of Spruce trees", with only lichens and mosses in the photographed part.