View source for Year Without a Summer

{{Short description|1816 volcanic winter climate event}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox eruption
 | name = Year Without a Summer
 | photo = File:1816 summer.png
 | photo-size =
 | caption = 1816 summer temperature anomaly in Europe compared with average temperatures from 1971 to 2000
 | start_date = Eruption occurred on April 10, 1815
 | volcano = [[Mount Tambora]]
 | type = [[Ultra-Plinian]]
 | location = [[Lesser Sunda Islands]], [[Dutch East Indies]] (now Republic of [[Indonesia]])

 | impact =Caused a [[volcanic winter]] that dropped temperatures by 0.4–0.7&nbsp;°C (or 0.7–1&nbsp;°F) worldwide
}}

The year [[1816]] is known as the '''Year Without a Summer''' because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by {{convert|0.4|-|0.7|C-change|sigfig=1}}.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1126/science.224.4654.1191 | last1 = Stothers | first1 = Richard B. | year = 1984 | title = The Great Tambora Eruption in 1815 and Its Aftermath | journal = Science | volume = 224 | issue = 4654| pages = 1191–1198  |pmid = 17819476 |bibcode = 1984Sci...224.1191S | s2cid = 23649251 }}</ref> Summer temperatures in Europe were the [[extreme weather|coldest of any on record]] between 1766 and 2000,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schurer |first1=Andrew P. |last2=Hegerl |first2=Gabriele C. |last3=Luterbacher |first3=Jürg |last4=Brönnimann |first4=Stefan |last5=Cowan |first5=Tim |last6=Tett |first6=Simon F. B. |last7=Zanchettin |first7=Davide |last8=Timmreck |first8=Claudia |date=September 17, 2019 |title=Disentangling the causes of the 1816 European year without a summer |journal=Environmental Research Letters |language=en |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=094019 |bibcode=2019ERL....14i4019S |doi=10.1088/1748-9326/ab3a10 |issn=1748-9326 |doi-access=free|hdl=21.11116/0000-0004-B878-6 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> resulting in [[crop failures]] and major [[famine|food shortages]] across the [[Northern Hemisphere]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://new-brunswick.net/Saint_John/timedate.html |title=Saint John New Brunswick Time Date |publisher=New-brunswick.net |access-date=March 5, 2012 |archive-date=January 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109193456/http://new-brunswick.net/Saint_John/timedate.html#4 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a [[volcanic winter]] event caused by the massive [[1815 eruption of Mount Tambora]] in April in modern-day Indonesia (commonly referred to as the [[Dutch East Indies]] at the time). This eruption was the largest in at least 1,300 years (after the hypothesized eruption causing the [[volcanic winter of 536]]); its effect on the climate may have been exacerbated by the 1814 eruption of [[Mayon]] in the Philippines. The significant amount of [[volcanic ash]] and gases released into the atmosphere blocked sunlight, leading to global cooling.

Countries such as the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] and [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]] France experienced significant hardship, with [[food riots]] and famine becoming common. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Europe was still recovering from the [[Napoleonic Wars]], adding to the socio-economic stress.

North America also faced extreme weather conditions. In the eastern United States, a persistent "dry fog" dimmed the sunlight, causing unusual cold and frost throughout the summer months. Crops failed in regions like [[New England]], leading to food shortages and economic distress. These conditions forced many families to leave their homes in search of better farming opportunities, contributing to [[Westward expansion]].

==Description==
The Year Without a Summer was an agricultural disaster; historian John D. Post called it "the last great [[subsistence crisis]] in the Western world".<ref name="Post1977">{{cite book |last1=Post |first1=John D. |title=The last great subsistence crisis in the Western World |date=1977 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0801818509 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |language=en-us}}</ref><ref name="EvansRobert">{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Robert |title=Blast from the Past |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blast-from-the-past-65102374/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |page=2 |language=en-us |archive-date=March 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220315104117/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blast-from-the-past-65102374/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The climatic aberrations of 1816 had their greatest effect on [[New England]] (US), [[Atlantic Canada]], and Western Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thewire.in/the-sciences/is-the-meghalayan-event-a-tipping-point-in-geology|title=Is the Meghalayan Event a Tipping Point in Geology?|date=July 23, 2018|access-date=July 23, 2018|archive-date=July 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723182306/https://thewire.in/the-sciences/is-the-meghalayan-event-a-tipping-point-in-geology|url-status=live}}</ref>

The main cause of the Year Without a Summer is generally held to be a [[volcanic winter]] created by the April 1815 [[1815 eruption of Mount Tambora|eruption of Mount Tambora]] on [[Sumbawa]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Year Without a Summer |url=http://www.bellrock.org.uk/misc/misc_year.htm |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=www.bellrock.org.uk |archive-date=January 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117235608/http://www.bellrock.org.uk/misc/misc_year.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Tully, Anthony. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060615181454/http://indodigest.com/indonesia-special-article-19.html Tambora, Indonesian Volcano (Tambora Volcano Part I): Tambora: The Year Without A Summer]}}, Indodigest, archived on June 15, 2006, from {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030913003419/http://indodigest.com/indonesia-special-article-19.html the original]}}.</ref><ref>Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles: ''A History of Java''; Black, Parbury, and Allen for the Hon. East India Company 1817; reprinted in the Cambridge Library Collection, 2010.</ref> The eruption had a [[volcanic explosivity index]] (VEI) ranking of 7, and ejected at least {{convert|37|km3|cumi|abbr=on}} of [[dense-rock equivalent]] material into the atmosphere.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kandlbauer |first1=J. |last2=Sparks |first2=R. S. J. |date=October 1, 2014 |title=New estimates of the 1815 Tambora eruption volume |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377027314002601 |journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research |language=en |volume=286 |pages=93–100 |bibcode=2014JVGR..286...93K |doi=10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2014.08.020 |issn=0377-0273 |access-date=December 31, 2023 |archive-date=May 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529135709/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027314002601 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> It remains the most recent confirmed VEI-7 eruption to date.<ref name="Oppenheimer20032">{{cite journal |author=Oppenheimer |first=Clive |year=2003 |title=Climatic, environmental and human consequences of the largest known historic eruption: Tambora volcano (Indonesia) 1815 |journal=Progress in Physical Geography |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=230–259 |bibcode=2003PrPG...27..230O |doi=10.1191/0309133303pp379ra |s2cid=131663534}}</ref>

Other large volcanic eruptions (of at least VEI-4) around this time include:

* The [[1808 mystery eruption]] in the southwestern Pacific Ocean
* 1812, [[Soufrière (volcano)|La Soufrière]] on [[Saint Vincent (island)|Saint Vincent]] in the Caribbean
* 1812, [[Mount Awu|Awu]] in the Sangihe Islands, [[Dutch East Indies]]
* 1813, [[Suwanosejima]] in the [[Ryukyu Islands]]
* 1814, [[Mayon Volcano|Mayon]] in the [[Philippines]]

These eruptions had built up a substantial amount of atmospheric dust, and thus temperatures fell worldwide as the airborne material blocked sunlight in the [[stratosphere]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/why-does-the-stratosphere-cool-when-the-troposphere-warms/ |title=Why does the stratosphere cool when the troposphere warms? " RealClimate |journal=Nature |volume=532 |issue=7597 |pages=94–98 |doi=10.1038/nature17418 |pmid=27078569 |publisher=Realclimate.org |access-date=April 21, 2016 |bibcode=2016Natur.532...94L |year=2016 |last1=Ljungqvist |first1=F. C. |last2=Krusic |first2=P. J. |last3=Sundqvist |first3=H. S. |last4=Zorita |first4=E. |last5=Brattström |first5=G. |last6=Frank |first6=D. |s2cid=4405189 |archive-date=September 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902190411/http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/why-does-the-stratosphere-cool-when-the-troposphere-warms/ |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to a 2012 analysis by [[Berkeley Earth]], the 1815 Tambora eruption caused a temporary drop in the Earth's average land temperature of about one degree Celsius; smaller temperature drops were recorded from the 1812–1814 eruptions.<ref>[http://berkeleyearth.org/pdf/berkeley-earth-press-release-july-29.pdf Berkeley Earth Releases New Analysis] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021061031/http://berkeleyearth.org/pdf/berkeley-earth-press-release-july-29.pdf |date=October 21, 2012 }}, July 29, 2012</ref>

The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of cooling that began in the 14th century. Known today as the [[Little Ice Age]], it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe. The eruption of Tambora occurred near the end of the Little Ice Age, exacerbating the background global cooling of the period.<ref>{{cite web |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Environmental History Resources – The Little Ice Age, c. 1300–1870 |url=http://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_lia.html |access-date=April 17, 2015 |website=eh-resources.org |publisher=Environmental History Resources |archive-date=February 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218182724/http://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_lia.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

This period also occurred during the [[Dalton Minimum]], a period of relatively low [[solar activity]] from 1790 to 1830. May 1816 had the lowest [[Wolf number]] (0.1) to date since records on solar activity began. It is not yet known, however, if and how changes in solar activity affect Earth's climate, and this correlation does not prove that lower solar activity produces global cooling.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dalton minimum {{!}} solar phenomenon [1790–1830] {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Dalton-minimum |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=September 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904095626/https://www.britannica.com/science/Dalton-minimum |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Africa ===
No direct evidence for conditions in the [[Sahel]] region have been found, though conditions from surrounding areas have implied above-normal rainfall. Below the Sahel, the coastal regions of West Africa likely experienced below-normal levels of precipitation. Severe storms affected the South African coast during the Southern Hemisphere winter. On July 29–30, 1816, a violent storm occurred near [[Cape Town]], South Africa, which brought forceful northerly winds and [[hail]] and caused severe damage to shipping.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Chenoweth |first=Michael |date=September 1, 1996 |title=Ships' Logbooks and "The Year Without a Summer" |journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |language=en |volume=77 |issue=9 |pages=2077–2094 |doi=10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077<2077:SLAYWA>2.0.CO;2 |bibcode=1996BAMS...77.2077C |issn=0003-0007|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Asia===
The [[monsoon]] season in China was disrupted, resulting in overwhelming floods in the [[Yangtze Valley]]. Fort [[Shuangcheng, Harbin|Shuangcheng]] reported fields disrupted by frost and conscripts deserting as a result. Summer snowfall or otherwise [[Rain and snow mixed|mixed precipitation]] was reported in various locations in [[Jiangxi]] and [[Anhui]]. In [[Taiwan under Qing rule|Taiwan]], snow was reported in [[Hsinchu]] and [[Miaoli County|Miaoli]], and frost was reported in [[Changhua]].<ref name=igsnrr>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090326133019/http://www.igsnrr.ac.cn/lwzzImg/1161151232919.pdf Serious Famine in Yunnan (1815–1817) and the Eruption of Tambola Volcano] Fudan Journal (Social Sciences) No. 1 2005, archived on March 26, 2009, from [http://www.igsnrr.ac.cn/lwzzImg/1161151232919.pdf the original]</ref> A large-scale famine in [[Yunnan]] helped reverse the fortunes of the ruling [[Qing dynasty]].<ref name="igsnrr" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Broad |first=William J. |date=September 2, 2015 |title=200年前，那場火山爆發改變了世界 |url=https://cn.nytimes.com/lifestyle/20150902/t02summer/zh-hant/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201219130428/https://cn.nytimes.com/lifestyle/20150902/t02summer/zh-hant/ |archive-date=2020-12-19 |accessdate=2019-07-17 |work=[[The New York Times|紐約時報中文網]] |language=zh-hant}}</ref>

In India, the delayed summer monsoon caused late torrential rains that aggravated the spread of [[cholera]] from a region near the [[Ganges]] in [[Bengal]] to as far as Moscow.<ref name="Discovery Channel">[http://www.yourdiscovery.com/earth/year_without_summer/facts/index.shtml Facts – Year Without Summer]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200308215640/http://www.discoveryuk.com/|date=March 8, 2020}}, ''Extreme Earth'', Discovery Channel.</ref> In Bengal, abnormal cold and snow was reported in the winter monsoon.<ref name=":5" />

In Japan, which was still cautious after the cold-weather-related [[Great Tenmei famine]] of 1782–1788, cold damaged crops, but no crop failures were reported and there was no adverse effect on population.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://turning-point.info/YearWithoutaSummer.html |title=夏のない年 from turning-point.info |access-date=September 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911155915/http://turning-point.info/YearWithoutaSummer.html |archive-date=September 11, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Greenland sulfate.png|thumb|[[Sulfate]] concentration in [[ice cores]] from [[Greenland]]. An [[1808 mystery eruption|unknown eruption]] occurred before 1810.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dai |first1=Jihong |last2=Mosley-Thompson |first2=Ellen |last3=Thompson |first3=Lonnie G. |year=1991 |title=Ice core evidence for an explosive tropical volcanic eruption six years preceding Tambora |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |volume=96 |issue=D9 |pages=17, 361–317, 366 |bibcode=1991JGR....9617361D |doi=10.1029/91jd01634 |s2cid=8384563}}</ref> The peak after 1815 was caused by Mount Tambora.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}]]

===Europe===
As a result of the series of volcanic eruptions in the 1810s, crops had been poor for several years; the final blow came in 1815 with the eruption of Tambora. Europe, still recuperating from the [[Napoleonic Wars]], suffered from widespread food shortages, resulting in its worst famine of the century.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Fagan|first=Brian M.|url=http://archive.org/details/littleiceagehowc0000faga|title=The Little Ice Age : how climate made history, 1300–1850|date=2000|publisher=New York,: [[Basic Books]]|others=Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Phillips Academy}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Stommel|first=Henry|title=Volcano weather : the story of 1816, the year without a summer|publisher=Seven Seas Press|year=1983|isbn=0915160714}}</ref><ref name="Oppenheimer2003" /><ref>"The 'year without a summer' in 1816 produced massive famines and helped stimulate the emergence of the administrative state", observes [[Albert Gore]], ''Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the human spirit'', 2000: 79.</ref> Low temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in Great Britain and Ireland. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of wheat, [[oat]], and potato harvests. [[Food prices]] rose sharply throughout Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Warde |first1=Paul |last2=Fagan |first2=Brian |date=January 2002 |title=The Little Ice Age. How Climate Made History 1300–1850 |journal=Environmental History |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=133 |doi=10.2307/3985463 |issn=1084-5453 |jstor=3985463 |s2cid=129984285}}</ref> With the cause of the problems unknown, hungry people demonstrated in front of grain markets and bakeries. [[Food riot]]s took place in many European cities. Though riots were common during times of hunger, the food riots of 1816 and 1817 were the most violent period on the continent since the [[French Revolution]].<ref name=":1" />

Between 1816 and 1819, major [[typhus]] epidemics occurred in parts of Europe, including Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and Scotland, precipitated by the famine. More than 65,000 people died as the disease spread out of Ireland.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

The long-running [[Central England temperature]] record reported the eleventh coldest year on record since 1659, as well as the third coldest summer and the coldest July on record.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/data/download.html | title=Met Office Hadley Centre Central England Temperature Data Download | access-date=April 23, 2020 | archive-date=November 22, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122065716/https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/data/download.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Widespread flooding of Europe's major rivers is attributed to the event, as is frost in August. Hungary experienced snowfall colored brown by volcanic ash; in northern Italy, red snow fell throughout the year.<ref name=":0" />

Flooding impeded navigation of major rivers like the [[Rhine]], including the transportation of grain. In German-speaking lands, (particularly inland), prices rose, and though only [[Wurttemberg]] saw deaths exceed births, emigration caused a greater population loss than excess mortality. [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] avoided famine.<ref name=Collet_Kramer_2017>{{cite book |last1=Collet |first1=Dominik |last2=Krämer |first2=Daniel |date=2017 |title=Famine in European History |chapter=5 - Germany, Switzerland and Austria |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/110D3AEE6E978DFE51BA66BE43116A22 |url= |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=109–111, 117 |isbn=9781107179936 |access-date=2025-04-05}}</ref>

In [[Switzerland]], famine was limited to the east, which was densely populated and more industrialized.<ref name=Collet_Kramer_2017/> In western Switzerland, the summers of 1816 and 1817 were so cold that an [[Proglacial lake|ice dam]] formed below a tongue of the [[Giétro Glacier]] in the [[Val de Bagnes]], creating a lake. Despite engineer [[Ignaz Venetz]]'s efforts to drain the growing lake, the ice dam collapsed catastrophically in June 1818, killing forty people in the resulting flood.<ref>The flood is fully described in Jean M. Grove, ''Little Ice Ages, Ancient and Modern'' (as ''The Little Ice Age'' 1988) revised edition. 2004: 161.</ref>

Harvests were not affected everywhere. In Scandinavia and the northern Baltic regions were almost normal, as they were in eastern Europe and western Russia. Indeed, the  Russian Emperor [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]] was able to donate grain to western Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Luterbacher |first1=J. |last2=Pfister |first2=C. |date=2015 |title=The year without a summer |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2404 |journal=Nature Geoscience |language=en |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=246–248 |doi=10.1038/ngeo2404 |issn=1752-0894|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===North America===
In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent "dry fog" was observed in parts of the eastern United States. The fog reddened and dimmed sunlight such that [[sunspot]]s were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog", retrospectively characterized by [[Clive Oppenheimer]] as a "stratospheric [[sulfate]] [[aerosol]] veil".<ref>{{citation |last1=Oppenheimer |first1=Clive |title=Climatic, environmental and human consequences of the largest known historic eruption: Tambora volcano (Indonesia) 1815 |journal=Progress in Physical Geography |volume=27 |issue=2 |page=230 |year=2003 |bibcode=2003PrPG...27..230O |doi=10.1191/0309133303pp379ra |s2cid=131663534}}.</ref>

The weather was not in itself a hardship for those accustomed to long winters. Hardship came from the weather's effect on crops and thus on the supply of food and firewood. The consequences were felt most strongly at higher elevations, where farming was already difficult even in good years. In May 1816, [[frost]] killed off most crops in the higher elevations of [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Vermont]], and [[upstate New York]].<ref name="islandnet1">{{cite web |last=Heidorn |first=Keith C. |date=July 1, 2000 |title=Weather Doctor's Weather People and History: Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death, The Year There Was No Summer |url=http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/history/1816.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000823154557/http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/history/1816.htm |archive-date=August 23, 2000 |access-date=October 12, 2017 |publisher=Islandnet.com}}</ref> On June 6, snow fell in [[Albany, New York]], and [[Dennysville, Maine]].<ref name="Oppenheimer2003">Oppenheimer 2003.</ref> In [[Cape May, New Jersey]], frost was reported five nights in a row in late June, causing extensive crop damage.<ref>American Beacon (Norfolk, Virginia), Vol. II, Issue 124 (July 4, 1816), 3.</ref> Though fruit and vegetable crops survived in New England, corn was reported to have ripened so poorly that no more than a quarter of it was usable for food, and much of it was moldy and not even fit for animal feed.<ref name=":0" /> The crop failures in New England, Canada, and parts of Europe caused food prices to rise sharply. In Canada, Quebec ran out of bread and milk, and Nova Scotians found themselves boiling foraged herbs for sustenance.<ref name=":0" />

Sarah Snell Bryant, of [[Cummington]], [[Massachusetts]], wrote in her diary: "Weather backward."<ref>Sarah Snell Bryant diary, 1816 Remarks, original at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime (New York: Auburn, Miller, Orton, and Mulligan, 1857), 2: 78–79, quoted in Glendyne R. Wergland, One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793–1865 (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006), chapter 2.</ref> At the Church Family of [[Shakers]] near [[New Lebanon, New York]], Nicholas Bennet wrote in May 1816 that "all was froze" and the hills were "barren like winter". Temperatures fell below freezing almost every day in May. The ground froze on June 9; on June 12, the Shakers had to replant crops destroyed by the cold. On July 7, it was so cold that all of their crops had stopped growing. Salem, Massachusetts physician Edward Holyoke—a weather observer and amateur astronomer—while in Franconia, New Hampshire, wrote on June 7, "exceedingly cold. Ground frozen hard, and squalls of snow through the day. Icicles 12 inches long in the shade of noon day." After a lull, by August 17, Holyoke noted an abrupt change from summer to winter by August 21, when a meager bean and corn crop were killed. "The fields," he wrote, "were as empty and white as October."<ref>Edward Holyoke, journal, 1816, in Soon, W., and Yaskell, S.H., Year Without a Summer, Mercury, Vol. 32, No. 3, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, May/June 2003.</ref> The [[Berkshires]] saw frost again on August 23, as did much of New England and upstate New York.<ref>Nicholas Bennet, Domestic Journal, May–September 1816, Western Reserve Historical Society ms. V: B-68, quoted in Wergland, One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793–1865, chapter 2.</ref>

Massachusetts historian William G. Atkins summed up the disaster:

<blockquote>Severe frosts occurred every month; June 7th and 8th snow fell, and it was so cold that crops were cut down, even freezing the roots ... In the early Autumn when corn was in the milk [the [[endosperm]] inside the kernel was still liquid]<ref>{{Cite web |title=When should sweet corn be harvested? {{!}} Mississippi State University Extension Service |url=http://extension.msstate.edu/content/when-should-sweet-corn-be-harvested |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=extension.msstate.edu |archive-date=May 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529135705/http://extension.msstate.edu/content/when-should-sweet-corn-be-harvested |url-status=live }}</ref> it was so thoroughly frozen that it never ripened and was scarcely worth harvesting. Breadstuffs were scarce and prices high and the poorer class of people were often in straits for want of food. It must be remembered that the granaries of the great west had not then been opened to us by railroad communication, and people were obliged to rely upon their own resources or upon others in their immediate locality.<ref>William G. Atkins, History of Hawley (West Cummington, Massachusetts (1887), p. 86.</ref></blockquote>

In July and August, lake and river ice was observed as far south as northwestern [[Pennsylvania]]. Frost was reported in [[Virginia]] on August 20 and 21.<ref>American Beacon (Norfolk, Virginia), September 9, 1816, p. 3.</ref> Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as {{Convert|95|F|C}} to near-freezing within hours. [[Thomas Jefferson]], by then retired from politics to his estate at [[Monticello]] in Virginia, sustained crop failures that sent him further into debt. On September 13, a Virginia newspaper reported that corn crops would be one half to two-thirds short and lamented that "the cold as well as the drought has nipt the buds of hope".<ref>"Crops," American Beacon (Norfolk, Virginia), September 13, 1816, p. 3.</ref> A [[Norfolk, Virginia]], newspaper reported:

<blockquote>It is now the middle of July, and we have not yet had what could properly be called summer. Easterly winds have prevailed for nearly three months past ... the sun during that time has generally been obscured and the sky overcast with clouds; the air has been damp and uncomfortable, and frequently so chilling as to render the fireside a desirable retreat.<ref>Columbian Register (New Haven, Connecticut), July 27, 1816, p. 2.</ref></blockquote>

Regional farmers succeeded in bringing some crops to maturity, but [[maize|corn]] and other [[cereal|grain]] prices rose dramatically. The price of [[oats]], for example, rose from 12¢ per [[bushel]] in 1815 to 92¢ per bushel in 1816. Crop failures were aggravated by inadequate transportation infrastructure; with few roads or navigable inland waterways and no railroads, it was prohibitively expensive to import food in most of the country.<ref>John Luther Ringwalt, ''[[iarchive:bub gb tkcKAAAAIAAJ 3|Development of Transportation Systems in the United States]]'', "Commencement of the Turnpike and Bridge Era", 1888: 27 notes that the very first artificial road was the [[Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike]], 1792–1795, a single route of 62 miles; "it seems impossible to ascribe to the turnpike movement in the years before 1810 any significant improvement in the methods of land transportation in southern New England, or any considerable reduction in the cost of land carriage" (Percy Wells Bidwell, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=frIWAQAAIAAJ Rural Economy in New England] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529135705/https://books.google.com/books?id=frIWAQAAIAAJ|date=May 29, 2024}}", in ''Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences'', '''20''' [1916: 317]).</ref>

Maryland experienced brown, bluish, and yellow snowfall in April and May, colored by volcanic ash in the atmosphere.<ref name=":0" />

=== South America ===
A newspaper account of northeastern Brazil was published in the United Kingdom:<blockquote>By an arrival at Liverpool we have received accounts from [[Pernambuco]] of the 8th of Feb. [1817], which state that a most uncommon drought has been experienced in the tropical regions of the Brazils, or that part of the country between Pernambuco and [[Rio de Janeiro|Rio Janiero]]. By this circumstance all the streams had been dried up, the cattle were dying or dead, and all the population emigrating to the borders of the great rivers in search of water. The greatest distress prevailed, provisions were wanting, and the mills completely at a stand. They have no windmills, so that no corn could be ground. Vessels have been sent from Pernambuco to the United States to fetch flour, and what had tended to increase this distress was the interruption of the coasting trade through the dread of war with [[Buenos Aires|Buenos Ayres]].<ref name=":5" /> </blockquote>

==Societal effects==
{{multiple image
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 250
| header            = [[Caspar David Friedrich]] paintings before and after the eruption
| image1            = Friedrich, Caspar David - Mönch am Meer - Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.jpg
| caption1          = ''The Monk by the Sea'' (ca. 1808–1810)
| image2            = Caspar David Friedrich - Two Men by the Sea - WGA8249.jpg
| caption2          = ''Two Men by the Sea'' (1817)
}}

High levels of [[tephra]] in the atmosphere caused a haze to hang over the sky for several years after the eruption, and created rich red hues in sunsets. Paintings during the years before and after seem to confirm that these striking reds were not present before Mount Tambora's eruption,<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Hubbard|first=Zachary|date=April 30, 2019|title=Paintings in the Year Without a Summer|journal=Philologia|volume=11|issue=1|pages=17|doi=10.21061/ph.173|doi-broken-date=July 12, 2025|issn=2372-1952|doi-access=free|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334584078|access-date=January 21, 2024|archive-date=May 29, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529135713/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334584078_Paintings_in_the_Year_Without_a_Summer|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=Zerefos|first1=C. S.|last2=Gerogiannis|first2=V. T.|last3=Balis|first3=D.|last4=Zerefos|first4=S. C.|last5=Kazantzidis|first5=A.|date=April 16, 2007|title=Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings|journal=Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions|volume=7|issue=2|pages=5145–5172|doi=10.5194/acpd-7-5145-2007|issn=1680-7375|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00296303/file/acp-7-4027-2007.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200313142203/https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00296303/file/acp-7-4027-2007.pdf |archive-date=2020-03-13 |url-status=live|doi-access=free}}</ref> and depict moodier, darker scenes, even in the light of both the sun and the moon. [[Caspar David Friedrich]]'s ''[[The Monk by the Sea]]'' (ca. 1808–1810) and ''[[Two Men by the Sea]]'' (1817) indicate this shift of mood.<ref name=":2" />

[[File:Chichester Canal (1828).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|''[[Chichester Canal (painting)|Chichester Canal]]'' (1828) by [[J. M. W. Turner]]]]

A 2007 study analyzing paintings created between the years 1500 and 1900 around the times of notable volcanic events found a correlation between volcanic activity and the amount of red used in the painting.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /> High levels of tephra in the atmosphere led to spectacular sunsets during this period, as depicted in the paintings of [[J. M. W. Turner]], and may have given rise to the yellow tinge predominant in his paintings such as ''[[Chichester Canal (painting)|Chichester Canal]]'' (1828). Similar phenomena were observed after the [[1883 eruption of Krakatoa]], and on the [[West Coast of the United States]] following the [[1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo]].<ref name=":3" />

The lack of oats to feed horses may have inspired the German inventor [[Karl Drais]] to research new ways of horseless transportation, which led to the invention of the [[draisine]] and [[velocipede]], a precursor of the bicycle.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 29, 2005 |title=Brimstone and bicycles |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18524841-900-brimstone-and-bicycles/ |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US |archive-date=December 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215074641/https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18524841-900-brimstone-and-bicycles/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The crop failures of the "Year without a Summer" may have shaped the settlement of the [[Midwestern United States]], as many thousands of people left New England for western New York and the [[Northwest Territory]] in search of a more hospitable climate, richer soil, and better growing conditions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nettels |first=Curtis |title=The Emergence of a National Economy |publisher=M. E. Sharpe |year=1977 |isbn=0-87332-096-4 |location=White Plains, New York |language=en-us}}</ref> [[Indiana]] became a state in December 1816, and [[Illinois]] did two years later. British historian [[Lawrence Goldman]] has suggested that migration into the [[burned-over district]] of upstate New York was responsible for centering the [[Abolitionism|abolitionist movement]] in that region.<ref name="bragg">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077j4yv |title=1816, the Year Without a Summer |work=[[In Our Time (radio series)]] |publisher=[[BBC Radio 4]] |date=April 21, 2016 |access-date=April 21, 2016 |archive-date=April 21, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421181938/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077j4yv |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to historian L. D. Stillwell, [[Vermont]] alone experienced a decrease in population of between 10,000 and 15,000 in 1816 and 1817, erasing seven previous years of population growth.<ref name="EvansRobert" /> Among those who left Vermont were the family of [[Joseph Smith]], who moved from [[Norwich, Vermont]], to [[Palmyra, New York]].<ref name="js_reasontomove">{{cite web|url=http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/presidents/controllers/potcController.jsp?leader=1&topic=events |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040828212044/http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/presidents/controllers/potcController.jsp?leader=1&topic=events |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 28, 2004 |title=Joseph Smith Jr. – Significant Events |publisher=Lds.org |access-date=March 5, 2012}}</ref> This move precipitated the series of events that culminated in Smith founding [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].<ref name="Discovery Channel"/>

In June 1816, "incessant rainfall" during the "wet, ungenial summer" forced [[Mary Shelley]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marshall |first=Alan |date=January 24, 2020 |title=Did a volcanic eruption in Indonesia really lead to the creation of Frankenstein? |url=http://theconversation.com/did-a-volcanic-eruption-in-indonesia-really-lead-to-the-creation-of-frankenstein-130212 |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US |archive-date=December 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231217011514/http://theconversation.com/did-a-volcanic-eruption-in-indonesia-really-lead-to-the-creation-of-frankenstein-130212 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":4" /> [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], [[Lord Byron]], [[John William Polidori]], and their friends to stay indoors at [[Villa Diodati]] for much of their Swiss holiday.<ref name="bragg" /><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31deltoro.html Why Vampires Never Die]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203122126/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31deltoro.html|date=February 3, 2017}} by [[Chuck Hogan]] and [[Guillermo del Toro]], ''[[The New York Times]],'' July 30, 2009. Retrieved April 27, 2015</ref><ref name=":4" /> Inspired by a [[Fantasmagoriana|collection of German ghost stories]] that they had read, Lord Byron proposed a contest to see who could write the scariest story, leading Shelley to write ''[[Frankenstein]]''<ref name=":4" /> and [[Lord Byron]] to write "[[Fragment of a Novel|A Fragment]]", which Polidori later used as inspiration for ''[[The Vampyre]]''<ref name=":4">{{cite book | last =Shelley | first =Mary | author-link =Mary Shelley | title =Frankenstein | publisher =Random House | pages =xv–xvi | isbn =0-679-60059-0| year =1993 }}</ref> – a precursor to ''[[Dracula]]''. These days inside Villa Diodati, remembered fondly by Mary Shelley,<ref name=":4" /> were occupied by [[opium]] use and intellectual conversations.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Polidori |first=John William |title=The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55017/55017-h/55017-h.htm |access-date=2020-05-31 |website=www.gutenberg.org |archive-date=December 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181222084001/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55017/55017-h/55017-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> After listening intently to one of these conversations, she awoke with the image of Victor Frankenstein kneeling over his monstrous creation, and thus was inspired to write ''Frankenstein''.<ref name=":4" /> Lord Byron was inspired to write the poem "[[Darkness (poem)|Darkness]]" by a single day when "the fowls all went to roost at noon and candles had to be lit as at midnight".<ref name=bragg/> The imagery in the poem is starkly similar to the conditions of the Year Without a Summer:<ref>{{Citation |last=Byron |first=George Gordon Noel Byron, sixth Bar |title=301 Darkness |date=December 5, 1816 |work=Lord Byron: The Complete Poetical Works |volume=4 |pages=41–460 |editor1-last=McGann |editor1-first=Jerome J. |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oseo/instance.00072952 |isbn=978-0-19-812756-7}}.</ref>

{{Poem quote|I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day}}

[[Justus von Liebig]], a chemist who had experienced the famine as a child in [[Darmstadt]], later studied plant nutrition and introduced mineral [[fertilizer]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Post |first=John D. |title=The last great subsistence crisis in the western world |date=1977 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Pr |isbn=978-0-8018-1850-9 |location=Baltimore}}</ref>

==Comparable events==
* [[Youngest_Toba_eruption#Toba_catastrophe_theory|Toba catastrophe]], a hypothetical cooling during the Late Pleistocene following the eruption  74,000 years ago.
* The 1628–1626 BC climate disturbances,{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} usually attributed to the [[Minoan eruption]] of [[Santorini]]
* The [[Hekla 3 eruption]] of about 1200 BC, contemporary with the historical [[Bronze Age collapse]]
* The [[Hatepe eruption]] (sometimes referred to as the Taupō eruption), around AD 180
* The [[Volcanic winter of 536|winter of 536]] has been linked to the effects of a volcanic eruption, possibly at Krakatoa, or of [[Ilopango]] in El Salvador
* The [[Heaven Lake]] eruption of [[Paektu Mountain]] between modern-day [[North Korea]] and the People's Republic of China, in 969 (± 20 years), is thought to have had a role in the downfall of [[Balhae]]
* The [[1257 Samalas eruption]] of [[Mount Rinjani]] on the island of [[Lombok]] in 1257
* The [[1452/1453 mystery eruption]] has been implicated in events surrounding the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453
* An eruption of [[Huaynaputina]], in [[Viceroyalty of Peru|Peru]], caused 1601 to be the coldest year in the Northern Hemisphere for six centuries (see [[Russian famine of 1601–1603]]); 1601 consisted of a bitterly cold winter, a cold, frosty, nonexistent spring, and a cool, cloudy, wet summer
* An eruption of [[Laki]], in [[Iceland]], was responsible for up to hundreds of thousands of fatalities throughout the Northern Hemisphere (over 25,000 in England alone), and one of the coldest winters ever recorded in North America, 1783–1784; long-term consequences included poverty and famine that may have contributed to the [[French Revolution]] in 1789.<ref>Wood, C. A. (1992) ''The climatic effects of the 1783 Laki eruption'', pp. 58–77 in C. R. Harrington (Ed.), ''The Year Without a Summer?''. Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada.</ref>
* The [[1883 eruption of Krakatoa]] caused average Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures to fall by as much as 1.2&nbsp;°C (2.2&nbsp;°F). One of the wettest rainy seasons in recorded history followed in California during 1883–1884.
* The eruption of [[Mount Pinatubo]] in 1991 led to odd weather patterns and temporary cooling in the United States, particularly in the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] and parts of the Northeast. Every month in 1992 except for January and February was colder than normal. More rain than normal fell across the West Coast of the United States, particularly California, during the 1991–1992 and 1992–1993 rainy seasons. The American Midwest experienced more rain and major flooding during the spring and summer of 1993. This may also have contributed to the historic "[[Storm of the Century (1993)|Storm of the Century]]" on the Atlantic Coast in March that same year.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

==See also==
* {{annotated link|1458 mystery eruption}}
* {{annotated link|Dalton Minimum}}
* {{annotated link|Global cooling}}
* {{annotated link|Little Ice Age}}
* {{annotated link|Tambora culture}}
* {{annotated link|Timeline of volcanism on Earth}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book | last1 =Klingaman| first1 =William| last2 =Klingaman| first2 =Nicholas| title =The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History| place =New York| publisher =St. Martin's Press| year =2013| page =[https://archive.org/details/yearwithoutsumme00will/page/338 338]| isbn =978-0312676452| url-access =registration| url =https://archive.org/details/yearwithoutsumme00will/page/338}}
* {{Cite news | last1 =Soon| first1 =Willie| last2 =Yaskell| first2 =Steven| title =Year Without a Summer| newspaper =Mercury| date =June 2003| url =http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/32_03/summer.html| access-date =January 5, 2015| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150402013048/http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/32_03/summer.html| archive-date =April 2, 2015| url-status =dead}}
* {{Cite book | last =Wood| first =Gillen| title =Tambora: the eruption that changed the world| publisher =Princeton University Press| year =2014| page =293| bibcode =2014tetc.book.....W| isbn =978-0691150543 }}

==External links==
* {{In Our Time|1816, the Year Without a Summer|b077j4yv}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Year Without A Summer}}
[[Category:1816 in economic history]]
[[Category:1816 meteorology]]
[[Category:1816 natural disasters]]
[[Category:1810s famines]]
[[Category:19th-century cold waves]]
[[Category:19th-century volcanic events]]
[[Category:Anomalous weather]]
[[Category:Events that forced the climate]]
[[Category:Gothic fiction]]
[[Category:Summer]]
[[Category:Volcanic winters]]
[[Category:Weather events in the United States]]