CORBIN, Ky. (WTVF) — Road trippers are pouring in from across the country to Cumberland Falls near Corbin, Kentucky, for one of the rarest sights in nature.

“I would have never thought in Kentucky there was a waterfall like this,” Josh Sharp, a tourist from Ohio, said. “How often do you see nature like this?”

Alan Jett, a tourist from Pennsylvania, said his wife spotted the destination while looking at a map. “It’s gorgeous, it really is,” Jett said.

But it is not just the 70 foot waterfall drawing the crowds. It is the moonbow, that appears alongside it during the light of a full moon, that has every cabin booked and the phone at the park ringing nonstop.

“People are here for the moonbow,” Maggy Kriebel, park manager at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, said. “Cumberland Falls is the only place in the Western Hemisphere that you can see a regularly occurring moonbow.”

A moonbow is similar to a daytime rainbow, but instead of sunlight, the colors come from moonlight. “The moon lines up just right with this mist off this waterfall,” professional photographer Max Caswell said.

Caswell enjoys capturing moonbows so much that he arrived hours early just to secure a spot along the river, checking conditions before the show began.

“I was actually looking to see how much mist was running down river,” Caswell said.

The wait, however, requires patience.”It’s going to be another hour and a half at least,” Caswell said. “The moon’s just now at the horizon.”

As darkness fell and the full moon rose above the trees, hundreds gathered to witness the spectacle. To the naked eye, the moonbow appears as a ghostly white arc, but cameras with long exposure settings reveal it bursting with color. “Boy that looks really good now. It’s brightening up a lot!” Caswell said.

By the end of the night, the display did not disappoint. “You can actually kind of see almost a double [moonbow] starting right there,” Caswell said, showing us one of his pictures.

According to the park, Cumberland Falls is the only place on this side of the world to catch almost monthly moonbows. The only other location where moonbows can be seen regularly is Victoria Falls in Africa.

Weather permitting, a moonbow is visible at Cumberland Falls every full moon — and that is what keeps photographers like Caswell coming back. “You never know what to expect. You don’t know if it’s going to be spot on. But that’s what keeps you going back out there and trying to chase that perfect shot,” Caswell said.

2026 Cumberland Falls moonbow dates

Cumberland Falls State Resort Park has released its 2026 moonbow viewing schedule. All times are approximate (in the Eastern Time Zone) and based on the evening of arrival.

July

• July 1: 12:30 am – 2:30 am
• July 27: 10:00 am – 12:00 am
• July 28: 10:30 pm – 12:30 am
• July 29: 11:00 pm – 1:00 am
• July 30: 11:30 pm – 1:30 am
• July 31: 12:00 am – 2:00 am

August

• Aug. 26: 9:30 pm – 11:30 pm
• Aug. 27: 10:00 pm – 12:00 am
• Aug. 28: 10:30 pm – 12:30 am
• Aug. 29: 11:00 pm – 1:00 am
• Aug. 30: 11:30 pm – 1:30 am

September

• Sept. 24: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
• Sept. 25: 9:00 pm – 11:00 pm
• Sept. 26: 9:30 pm – 11:30 pm
• Sept. 27: 10:00 pm – 12:00 am
• Sept. 28: 10:30 pm – 12:30 am

October

• Oct. 24: 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
• Oct. 25: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
• Oct. 26: 9:00 pm – 11:00 pm
• Oct. 27: 9:30 pm – 11:30 pm
• Oct. 28: 10:30 pm – 12:30 am

November

• Nov. 22: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
• Nov. 23: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
• Nov. 24: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
• Nov. 25: 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
• Nov. 26: 9:30 pm – 11:30 pm

December

• Dec. 21: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
• Dec. 22: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
• Dec. 23: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
• Dec. 24: 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
• Dec. 25: 9:30 pm – 11:30 pm

Do you have any great shots from recent Moonbows at Cumberland Falls, Kentucky? Share them with me at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Louisiana’s summer heat is becoming harder to ignore, with rising temperatures, higher humidity and thousands of heat-related emergency room visits in recent years.

Across all 64 parishes, average summer temperatures have risen since 1970, according to Climate Central, a nonprofit research group.

In 2023, Louisiana reported a record-breaking 88 heat-related deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. More than 6,100 people went to emergency rooms that year because of heat-related symptoms.

Tony Coker felt how quickly that heat can become dangerous while working his landscaping job last week.

Coker was among a crew cutting grass near LSU’s School of Public Health in New Orleans. He said the heat forced him to stop working.

“I got to a point, I was like, ‘OK guys, you’re going to have to finish. I’m done. My stomach is hurting. I’m sitting down for a minute and I’m going to go home,’” Coker said.

During Louisiana’s often-brutal summers, Coker takes steps to protect himself while working his landscaping job.

“I got this hat on. It’s a little hotter with long sleeves, but it keeps the sun off the body. I wear sunscreen to make sure to get as much protection as possible, you know 100 SPF,” Coker said.

According to Climate Central, a nonprofit research group, the average annual temperature in New Orleans has risen by 4.5 degrees since 1970.

The group’s newest summer analysis shows the warming is not limited to New Orleans. Among Louisiana cities analyzed, Shreveport has seen the largest increase in average summer temperatures since 1970, at 4.3 degrees, followed by New Orleans at 4.1 degrees. New Orleans, however, saw the largest increase in hotter-than-normal summer days, with 53 more days above normal than in the early 1970s.

Climate Central’s parish-level data shows average summer temperature increases ranging from 1.4 degrees in Avoyelles and Evangeline parishes to 3.1 degrees in Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Sabine and Terrebonne parishes.

In Orleans Parish, average summer temperatures have risen by 2.5 degrees since 1970, according to Climate Central’s parish-level data.

“It was relatively cool in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and then we went on this rapid warming trend, mimicking what’s going on across the globe, and it’s been very hot,” said Dr. Barry Keim, professor and program director of environmental health, climate and sustainability at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans.

Keim, a climatologist, said Louisiana’s humidity makes the heat feel even worse. He said humidity levels have also risen since the 1970s.

“Bottom line is, not only are the temperatures getting warmer, the humidity is going up, and then when you put the two together it just makes it feel horrible out here,” Keim said.

As the Fourth of July approaches, Keim said there will not be much relief in the form of rain. Louisiana is expected to stay hot and humid.

Forecasts show highs mainly in the low to mid-90s across Louisiana on Independence Day, with heat index values expected to reach the 100s in parts of the state and scattered afternoon storms possible

SILVER SPRING, MD. – A 15-year-old driver is in custody after allegedly striking an off-duty police officer’s vehicle and subsequently crashing into a residential home in Montgomery County.

What we know:

According to the Montgomery County Department of Police (MCPD), Fourth District officers responded to the 12800 block of Bushey Drive following reports of a vehicle colliding with a house.

Preliminary investigations reveal the incident began earlier when the teenage driver was allegedly involved in an initial collision with an off-duty police officer. Rather than stopping, the 15-year-old sped away from the scene, police say. The brief flight ended when the driver lost control and crashed directly into a nearby home.

Authorities confirmed that two other occupants who were inside the vehicle fled the scene on foot immediately after the house crash and remain at large.

The off-duty officer involved in the initial collision did not require transport to a hospital, according to police. 

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue services remained on the scene for several hours working to safely extract the vehicle from the structure.

What we don’t know:

The incident remains under investigation.