Year Without a Summer

The year 1816 AD is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1 °F).^[1] Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any on record between 1766 and 2000,^[2] resulting in crop failures and major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.^[3]

Year Without a Summer

Mount Tambora

Eruption occurred on 10 April 1815

Ultra-Plinian

Lesser Sunda Islands, Dutch East Indies (now Republic of Indonesia)

Caused a volcanic winter that dropped temperatures by 0.4–0.7°C (or 0.7–1°F) worldwide

Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in April in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). 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 in the southwestern Pacific Ocean

1808 mystery eruption

1812, on Saint Vincent in the Caribbean

La Soufrière

1812, in the Sangihe Islands, Dutch East Indies

Awu

1813, in the Ryukyu Islands

Suwanosejima

1814, in the Philippines

Mayon

Toba catastrophe

The 1628–1626 BC climate disturbances, usually attributed to the of Santorini

Minoan eruption

The of about 1200 BC, contemporary with the historical Bronze Age collapse

Hekla 3 eruption

The (sometimes referred to as the Taupō eruption), around AD 180

Hatepe eruption

The has been linked to the effects of a volcanic eruption, possibly at Krakatoa, or of Ilopango in El Salvador

winter of 536

The 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

Heaven Lake

The of Mount Rinjani on the island of Lombok in 1257

1257 Samalas eruption

The has been implicated in events surrounding the Fall of Constantinople in 1453

1452/1453 mystery eruption

An eruption of , in 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

Huaynaputina

An eruption of , 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.^[53]

Laki

The caused average Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures to fall by as much as 1.2 °C (2.2 °F). One of the wettest rainy seasons in recorded history followed in California during 1883–1884.

1883 eruption of Krakatoa

The eruption of in 1991 led to odd weather patterns and temporary cooling in the United States, particularly in the 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" on the Atlantic Coast in March that same year.

Mount Pinatubo

– Large volcanic eruption of uncertain location

1458 mystery eruption

– Period of low solar activity from 1790 to 1830

Dalton Minimum

– Discredited 1970s hypothesis of imminent cooling of the Earth

Global cooling

– Climatic cooling after the Medieval Warm Period (16th–19th centuries)

Little Ice Age

– Lost village and culture on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia

Tambora culture

Timeline of volcanism on Earth

Klingaman, William; Klingaman, Nicholas (2013). . New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 338. ISBN 978-0312676452.

The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History

Soon, Willie; Yaskell, Steven (June 2003). . Mercury. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.

"Year Without a Summer"

Wood, Gillen (2014). Tambora: the eruption that changed the world. Princeton University Press. p. 293. :2014tetc.book.....W. ISBN 978-0691150543.

Bibcode

on In Our Time at the BBC

Year Without a Summer