Some Interesting Articles from Wikipedia
The Year without a Summer
Description
The unusual climatic aberrations of 1816 had the greatest effect on the
Northeastern United States, the Canadian
Maritimes,
Newfoundland, and
Northern Europe. Typically, the late spring and summer of the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada are relatively stable: temperatures (average of both day and night) average about 20–25 °
C (68–77 °
F), and rarely fall below 5 °C (41 °F). Summer snow is an extreme rarity.
In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent
dry fog was observed in the northeastern
United States. The fog reddened and dimmed the sunlight, such that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog". It has been characterized as a
stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil.
[6]In May 1816,
[1] frost killed off most of the crops that had been planted, and on 4 June 1816, frosts were reported in
Connecticut, and by the following day, most of
New England was gripped by the cold front. On 6 June 1816, snow fell in
Albany, New York, and
Dennysville, Maine.
[7] Nearly a foot (30 cm) of snow was observed in
Quebec City in early June, with consequent additional loss of crops—most summer-growing plants have cell walls which rupture even in a mild frost. The result was regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality.
In July and August, lake and river ice were observed as far south as
Pennsylvania. Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as 35 °C (95 °F) to near-freezing within hours. Even though farmers south of
New England did succeed in bringing some crops to maturity, maize and other
grain prices rose dramatically. The staple food oats,
[8] for example, rose from 12¢ a
bushel ($3.40/m³) the previous year to 92¢ a bushel ($26/m³)—nearly eight times as much. Those areas suffering local crop failures had to deal with the lack of roads in the early 19th century, preventing any easy importation of bulky food stuffs.
[9]Cool temperatures and heavy rains resulted in failed harvests in the
British Isles as well. Families in
Wales traveled long distances as refugees, begging for food. Famine was prevalent in north and southwest Ireland, following the failure of
wheat,
oat and
potato harvests. The crisis was severe in Germany, where food prices rose sharply. Due to the unknown cause of the problems, demonstrations in front of grain markets and bakeries, followed by
riots,
arson and
looting, took place in many European cities. It was the worst
famine of the 19th century,
[7][10]In China, the cold weather killed trees, rice crops and even water buffalo, especially in northern China. Floods destroyed many remaining crops. Mount Tambora’s eruption disrupted China’s monsoon season, resulting in overwhelming floods in the
Yangtze Valley in 1816. In India the delayed summer monsoon caused late torrential rains that aggravated the spread of cholera from a region near the River Ganges in Bengal to as far as Moscow.
[11]The effects were widespread and lasted beyond the winter. In eastern Switzerland, the summers of 1816 and 1817 were so cool that an ice dam formed below a tongue of the
Giétro Glacier high in the
Val de Bagnes; in spite of the efforts of the engineer
Ignaz Venetz to drain the growing lake, the ice dam collapsed catastrophically in June 1818.
[13]It is now generally thought that the aberrations occurred because of the 1815 (April 5–15) volcanic
Mount Tambora eruption[14][15] on the island of
Sumbawa, Indonesia (then part of the
Dutch East Indies). The eruption had a
Volcanic Explosivity Index ranking of 7, a super-colossal event that ejected immense amounts of volcanic dust into the upper atmosphere. It was the world's largest eruption since the
Hatepe eruption over 1,630 years earlier in AD 180. The fact that the 1815 eruption occurred during the middle of the
Dalton Minimum (a period of unusually low solar activity) is also significant.
Other large volcanic eruptions (with
VEI at least 4) during the same time frame are:
These other eruptions had already built up a substantial amount of atmospheric dust. As is common following a massive volcanic eruption, temperatures fell worldwide because less sunlight passed through the atmosphere.
[edit]Effects
As a result of the series of volcanic eruptions, crops in the above cited areas had been poor for several years; the final blow came in 1815 with the eruption of Tambora. In the United States, many historians cite the "Year Without a Summer" as a primary motivation for the western movement and rapid settlement of what is now western and central New York and the
American Midwest. Many New Englanders were wiped out by the year, and tens of thousands struck out for the richer soil and better growing conditions of the
Upper Midwest (then the
Northwest Territory).
Europe, still recuperating from the
Napoleonic Wars, suffered from food shortages. Food riots broke out in the
United Kingdom and
France and grain warehouses were looted. The violence was worst in landlocked
Switzerland, where
faminecaused the government to declare a national emergency. Huge storms, abnormal rainfall with floodings of the major rivers of Europe (including the
Rhine) are attributed to the event, as was the frost setting in during August 1816. A major
typhus epidemic occurred in Ireland between 1816 and 1819, precipitated by the famine caused by "The Year Without a Summer". It is estimated that 100,000 Irish perished during this period. A BBC documentary using figures compiled in Switzerland estimated that fatality rates in 1816 were twice that of average years, giving an approximate European fatality total of 200,000 deaths.
The eruption of Tambora also caused
Hungary to experience brown snow.
Italy experienced something similar, with red snow falling throughout the year. The cause of this is believed to have been volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
In
China, unusually low temperatures in summer and fall devastated rice production in
Yunnan province in the southwest, resulting in widespread famine. Fort Shuangcheng, now in
Heilongjiang province, reported fields disrupted by frost and conscripts deserting as a result. Summer snowfall was reported in various locations in
Jiangxi and
Anhui provinces, both in the south of the country. In Taiwan, which has a tropical climate, snow was reported in
Hsinchu and
Miaoli, while frost was reported in
Changhua.
[16]Historic cases of volcanic winter
Pinatubo early eruption 1991
The scales of recent winters are more modest but their effects can be significant.
A paper written by
Benjamin Franklin in 1783 blamed the unusually cool summer of 1783 on volcanic dust coming from
Iceland, where the eruption of
Laki volcano had released enormous amounts of
sulfur dioxide, resulting in the death of much of the island's
livestock and a catastrophic
famine which killed a quarter of the population. Temperatures in the
northern hemisphere dropped by about 1 °C in the year following the Laki eruption.
In 1883, the
explosion of
Krakatoa (Krakatau) also created volcanic winter-like conditions. The next four years after the explosion were unusually cold, and the winter of 1887 to 1888 included powerful blizzards.
[5]. Record snowfalls were recorded worldwide.
Most recently, the 1991 explosion of
Mount Pinatubo, another stratovolcano in the
Philippines, cooled global temperatures for about 2–3 years.
[6]
So onto the week-end in Galway, we had loads of fun however I was exhausted by the time I got there even though I got to drive down in style in the Merc SLK, I was the first person who retired. We only arrived down at about 8:45 as there was an accident on the M50 and basically got down checked in and then went off to dinner in the dining room. After dinner which ended at about 11:30 we all went off to the pub in the hotel, there was this little old man playing country music to a handful of people, well I say he welcomed us as we started dancing and singing to his music. And what is it with "Galway Girl" everybody has to either sing it or have it as their ring tone down there?
Saturday morning after a nice breakfast I took a walk with some of the girls along the promenade, then went back to the hotel for a cappuccino and get ready for my facial with Dianne. After facial I headed into town, had to go get Em a present and of course Dianne gave me a shopping list of booze to buy. Anyway got back to the hotel and Elaine came back (my room mate) we had a good old natter, then Dianne arrived and we laughed till we cried (can't remember if she was sober at all over the week-end), then we all got ready for dinner out on the town.
8 o'clock the taxi's arrived and we all went into town for dinner, after dinner off to a pub - the town area was very much like Temple bar in Dublin people spilling out onto the streets, it was just to busy for us so we headed back to the hotel and the residents lounge. After one Baileys I think I head off to bed at about 2:30 a.m.
