The year without summer 1816.

Title :- The year without summer 1816.

By :- W.K. Klingaman & N.P.Klingaman

Published :- St. Martin’s Griffin – paperback, USA  2013 (300 pages)

Outline :- In 5-10 April 1815 Mt Tambora in Indonesia explosively erupted directly killing many and could be heard many hundreds of miles away. The author indicates subsequent research indicates that dust and sulphur of reached the upper atmosphere and gradually encircled the earth, lingering for about 3 years before finally falling back to earth. The particular size of the particles contributed to their remaining in the upper atmosphere, with the effect of reflecting the sun. The authors refer to upper atmosphere modeling that directed serious cold fronts over parts of North America and Europe (no mention of Asia of Russia).

Most of the book is a tedious read of endless excerpts of descriptions of fragments of local comments of the summer of 1816 that was actually a severe winter. The rain flooding, snow & cold over North America and much of Europe killed the crops and brought wide spread starvation & hardship. It prompted mass transmigration from USA’s NE states to the SW, and similar transmigration across Europe. Governments tended to ignore the plight, and indeed they had no experience to guide them in how a government should respond. Most of the economies and populations were rural based, and thus the social impact was extensive. Some international grain trading helped out. The impact was reflected in some of the English landscape paintings of the times, and the poetry of Lord Byron and others. Shellie’s concubine ended up writing the famous book Frankenstein through the parties that were obligatory due to staying inside because of the bad weather.

Some interesting excerpts;

  • P 111 – As the aerosol cloud reflected sunlight, the temperature of the land and ocean cooled gradually, due to the heat stored under their surfaces. By the summer, more than a year after the eruption, this cooling had most likely had begun to overtake the stratosphere warming. Since the tropics cooled more than the Arctic, the temperature difference between the two narrowed, leading to reduced trans-Atlantic westerly winds, a weaker and meandering jet stream with several blocks, and frequent intrusions of Arctic air into North America and western Europe.
  • P 20 – 1816 was the second coldest year in the Northern Hemisphere since 1400, surpassed only by 1601, following the eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru. And so 1817 was the 5th coldest, 1818 the 22nd coldest and 1819 the 29th coldest year in the Northern Hemisphere since 1400.

Some personal thought is that the World may need to focus less on global warming atmosphere gasses, but to devise a system to “bomb/ spray” selected volcanic clouds with chemicals to precipitate out the fine particles & sulphur gasses before they become too dispersed.