1816 - The Year Without a Summer

Summer; such a joyous season, a time when flowers bloom, crops flourish, and families vacation. A time that we can all lounge about and bask in the sun's warm glow. But what if there was no summer? What if the frigid temperatures of winter continued into the known summer months of June and July?

The year 1816 was known as The Year without a Summer. Every part of the world was facing a climate change that they had never seen before. Climate change is the term that is commonly used; however in reality; it was a Volcanic Winter. A volcanic winter is commonly defined as the decrease in temperature that is caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the sun following a volcanic eruption. Every time a volcano blows it's top there is some sort of effect on the climate, but to throw nearly the entire planet's northern hemisphere into a Volcanic Winter, means that the eruption was more cataclysmic then just a small volcanic burp.

In the case of 1816, Mount Tambora was the cause. Tambora began rumbling in 1812 and no one knew the power or devastation that was just around the corner when she blew in 1815. The thunderous sounds of the blast were heard up to 1,620 miles away from where Tambora sat on the Sumbawa Island in Indonesia. The entire volcano was quickly turned into a mountain covered in lava. Ash fell up to 800 miles away and hot rock and lava flows spread up to 13 miles.

The hot rock and lava flows killed thousands, but the main killer was the sulfur. Mount Tambora released sulfur into the Earth's atmosphere that blocked the sunlight. The sulfur spread into Britain in the autumn of 1815 causing red wavelengths of sunlight to pain the skies. Yes, the eruption was in April of 1815, but the full harsh reality of the effects didn't kick in until 1816.

France, home of the Champagne district of Verdun, harvests grapes that normally ripen in the summer. But in 1816 the sun did not shine on the grapes, the grapes froze in the cold weather. Hungary experienced a blizzard in January of 1816 like none ever seen before. Brown and yellow snow it Hungary hard. Many described the mixture of volcanic dust and snow as flesh colored snow.

Back here in the states, June is supposed to be a month of hot weather, however for New York, Maine, and Connecticut they were suffering from frigid cold temperatures as well as snowfalls. The June frost and snow ruined millions of crops for more than three months. The entire globe suffered as temperatures dropped almost two degrees Fahrenheit. Agriculture was in such ruin that people of Switzerland resorted to eating moss and any plant that they were able to find. Even those in Canada suffered from sub-zero temperatures.

Unseasonably cooler and colder weather meant the spread of diseases. A Cholera Epidemic fled threw Europe and India killing over two hundred thousand people. India was blanketed by over 50 cm of ash, hit with tsunamis, and had no clean water or food. The devastation was so great that many had claim that children were traded for food.

Desperate times call for desperate measures; however are there more desperate times like this ahead of us? I say the answer would be yes. Mount Tambora is a 9,350 foot stratovolcano that is still active, having its last eruption only forty years ago. Tambora is nothing compared to the several hundred or more volcanoes and supervolcanoes that have a history for eruptions ten even one hundred times larger than the Tambora's eruption and many of them are overdue for an eruption.

Many of these large eruptive type volcanoes erupt in yearly cycles ranging from thousands of years to millions of years, but a lot has changed since 1816. Many of the worlds most dangerous volcanoes are either tourist attractions that attract millions of tourists each year, to volcanoes that it's mountain is a home to millions of people.

As of July 2007 there is an estimate of 6,602,224,175 people in the world. 978,000,000 people were around in the 1800's. That means there are an estimated 5,624,224,175 people that can be affected by the next volcanic winter. That is assuming that the next one strikes this year. Since the 1700's there have been 4 major times of climate shift due to volcanic activity; 1783, 1816, 1883, and 1991.

The pattern of these time frames seem to be getting higher in years apart; from 1783 to 1816 that was 33 years. 1816 to 1883 is 67 years and from 1883 to 1991 that was 108 years. We could be safe until 2100 or it may be just around the corner in 2025. Whatever the case may be, our population may be doubled or tripled by then.

In conclusion, the danger levels are climbing and we can't stop Mother Nature from blowing her top, but we can prepare ourselves for the worst and learn from our past.