What Happened in 1816 That Summer Didn’t Happen?

While our planet has transformed from a pale blue dot to a pale white snowball several times in the past, it has also bounced off the edge of this transformation several times. One of the most well-known of these events took place in 1816. This year, which is known as the Year Without Summer, The Year Without Summer, The Year Without Summer, The Year of Poverty, especially the Northern Hemisphere experienced very serious problems and could not see the Sun’s face.

This year, which caused massive global riots, food crisis and general chaos, was correctly predicted by a calendar, albeit by accident. Let’s take a look at the events that took place at that time.

Welcome to the Little Ice Age!

Mostly from the 14th century to the 1850s, the Earth was generally cool and was getting colder. Average temperatures in northern Europe dropped to 1 degree Celsius. In this process, epidemics and famines were frequently seen due to reasons such as heavy rainfall and low summer temperatures.

What we need to know about this event, which deserves an article on its own, is that the Atlantic Glaciers first grew, causing great famine events in the 14th century, causing the lowest temperatures recorded in 1650, and expanding all the glaciers in 1550. In other words, while many geographies where people lived were going through a very cold period, the volcanic activities that came upon them were the harbingers of even worse times.

First Significant Explosion: 1814 Mayon Explosion

Of course, not having summer for a whole year is not an easy thing. It is inevitable that there will be great natural events behind this. In the case of 1816, it is necessary to look back a few years to find the causes. In this process, we encounter a lot of volcanic activity.

In order for the air temperature to decrease in the summer months, a place should not be able to benefit from sunlight sufficiently. This usually occurs when the sky is filled with ash and particles as a result of major volcanic activities. A series of volcanic activities also take place before the Summerless Year. One of the most important among them is the eruption of Mayon Volcano in the Philippines in 1814. The copious amounts of particles Mayon has emitted into the atmosphere are not actually strong enough to create the Summerless Year on their own, but when their power is combined with the explosion that follows, it creates a huge impact. Let’s fast forward a year now.

1815: Tambora Erupts With The Largest Known Volcanic Eruption

A scale similar to the Richter Scale that we use to understand the effects of earthquakes is also called VEI (Volcanic Eruption Index). The largest confirmed volcanic eruption to date on this scale took place on the island of Sumbawa, one of the Indonesian archipelago, in 1815.

While the eruptions of Tambora Volcano started on April 5, April 10 was a day when volcanic activities reached their peak and explosions were heard from thousands of kilometers away. The mountain, which was about 4300 meters high before the eruption, fell to 2851 meters. It took the month of July to stop the explosions completely, and the end of the smoke output in August.

Another important aspect of the explosion was that the explosion, which reached a height of 43 kilometers, reached the statosphere. Light ash and particles remained in the atmosphere for periods ranging from several months to several years and were carried away by air currents.

Let’s come to the Summerless Year…

The Year Without a Summer, which the historian John D. Post called “the last great livelihood crisis in the Western world”, came after all these disasters. According to many studies, the reason for this situation was the natural disasters above. The fact that the process came to the very end of the Little Ice Age further increased the gravity of the situation.

The eastern United States was partially covered by a permanent layer of fog. Due to this layer of fog, it was recorded that the sky turned red, just like in disaster movies. The northern parts of North America, which we cannot call an agricultural paradise, and the high-altitude regions were the places most dramatically affected by the temperature drop. Many crops died in the field due to the frost that started in May. On June 6, it snowed in New York and surrounding cities. In July and August, frosts occurred in various regions, lakes and rivers froze.

The situation was no different in Europe.

The absence of summer caused great problems, especially in Britain. Ireland and England faced a great famine. Welsh families had to travel long distances to beg for food or seek refuge elsewhere. In continental Europe, especially in Germany, food prices rose very rapidly. Incidents of arson and looting became very common. In many places lakes and rivers froze.

Floods were also seen in many regions due to unstable rains. These floods also destroyed the food left in the fields set up near the rivers. Brown snowfall was seen in Hungary and reddish colored snowfall in northern Italy and Central Europe. In Europe, where Napoleon burned a large part of agricultural lands in the long series of wars, when a summer-free year came, the famine caused people who could not get enough food to get diseases in the following periods and hundreds of thousands of people died in epidemics.

Asia also affected by the summerless year

Of course, Asia also faced many problems because of the Summerless Year. Trees, crops froze, and even herds of Asian buffalo perished, especially in northern parts of China. The plants left behind by the floods either died or failed to produce any crops. Major flooding occurred in many places.

The resulting humid environment and food shortages caused diseases to spread. Cholera, which emerged in the Ganges region in Bengal, turned into an epidemic that spread as far as Moscow. Japan, which had just come out of a famine, was also able to get out of the Year Without Summer with relatively less damage, thanks to their transition to a more frugal policy, despite great difficulties.

There was also a calendar that predicted Winter Without Summer

In 1792, Robert B. Thomas began writing an almanac for farmers’ use. This distinguished calendar, called the Old Farmer’s Almanac, became very popular. This calendar, on which there was information such as “The Storm of the Crone, the Fall of the 1st Cemre” in our calendars, was among the bedside works of those who were engaged in agriculture.

Thomas had a secret formula for this highly accurate calendar. This formula was based on the study of temperatures and weather phenomena recorded up to that time. In 1815, the calendar of 1816 was written with the same formula. For a long time people’s most important weather forecasting tool, the calendar came as a huge shock when it was released. According to the calendar, it would snow in June and July in 1816. The reason for these estimates, which rival companies mocked, was a printing error: January-February forecasts were written instead of July-August.