The Year Without Summer is a nickname for 1816, during which Western Europe and North America experienced unusually cold weather. Until today, it remains the coldest year since the beginning of documenting meteorological observations. In the United States, he was also nicknamed Eighteen hundred and frozen to death, which translates as "thousand eight hundred frozen to death."
In March 1816, the temperature continued to be winter. In April and May there was an unnatural amount of rain and hail. In June and July it was freezing every night in America. Up to a meter of snow fell in New York and the northeastern United States. Germany was repeatedly tormented by strong storms, many rivers (including the Rhine) overflowed their banks. In Switzerland, it snowed every month. The unusual cold led to a catastrophic crop failure. In the spring of 1817, grain prices rose tenfold, and famine broke out among the population. Tens of thousands of Europeans, still suffering from the devastation of the Napoleonic Wars, emigrated to America.
Only in 1920, the American climate researcher William Humphreys found an explanation for the "year without summer". He linked climate change to the Tambora volcano eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the most violent volcanic eruption ever observed, directly costing the lives of 71,000 people, the largest volcanic death toll in human history. Its April 1815 eruption was a Volcanic Eruption Scale (VEI) of seven, and a massive 150 km³ of ash into the atmosphere caused a northern hemisphere volcanic winter effect that lasted for several years.
There is information that after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, the temperature dropped by 0.5 degrees, which was the same after the eruption of Tambora in 1815.
We should have observed in 1992 throughout the northern hemisphere approximately the same phenomena that are described as "a year without summer." However, there was nothing of the kind. And if you compare with other eruptions, you can see that they did not always coincide with climatic anomalies. The hypothesis is bursting at the seams. It is the “white threads” with which it is sewn that are spreading.
And here's another oddity. In 1816, the problem with the climate happened precisely "in the entire Northern Hemisphere." But Tambora is located in the southern hemisphere, 1000 km from the equator. The fact is that in the Earth's atmosphere at altitudes above 20 km (in the stratosphere) there are stable air currents along the parallels. Dust ejected into the stratosphere to a height of 43 km should have been distributed along the equator with the dust belt shifting to the southern hemisphere. And what about the US and Europe?
Egypt, Central Africa, Central America, Brazil and, finally, Indonesia itself were supposed to freeze. But the weather there was very good. Interestingly, just at this time, in 1816, in Costa Rica, which is located about 1000 km north of the equator, they began to grow coffee. The reason for this was: “... the perfect alternation of rainy and dry seasons. And, constant temperature throughout the year, which favorably affects the development of coffee bushes ... "
And their business, you know, went. That is, even to the north of the equator for several thousand kilometers there was prosperity. But then - a full "pipe". How is it, interesting to know, 150 cubic kilometers of erupted soil jumped 5 ... 8 thousand kilometers from the southern hemisphere to the northern, at an altitude of 43 kilometers, in defiance of all longitudinal stratospheric currents, without spoiling the weather for the inhabitants of Central America in the slightest? But all its terrible, photon-scattering impenetrability, this dust brought down on Europe and North America.
But the strangest thing in this worldwide swindle is the role of Russia. Even if you live half your life in archives and libraries, you will not find a word about bad weather in the Russian Empire in 1816. We allegedly had a normal harvest, the sun was shining and the grass was green. We probably live neither in the Southern nor in the Northern Hemisphere, but in some third one.
Let's test our sanity. It's high time, for we are facing a huge optical illusion. So, there was hunger and cold in Europe in 1816 ... 1819! This is a fact confirmed by many written sources. Could this bypass Russia? It could, if it concerned only the western regions of Europe. But in this case, one would definitely have to forget about the volcanic hypothesis. After all, stratospheric dust is pulled along the parallels around the entire planet.
And besides, no less fully than in Europe, the tragic events are covered in North America. But they are still separated by the Atlantic Ocean. What kind of locality are we talking about here? The event clearly affected the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia. A variant when North America and Europe froze and starved for 3 years in a row, and Russia did not even notice the difference.
Thus, from 1816 to 1819, the cold really reigned in the entire northern hemisphere, including Russia, no matter what anyone says. Scientists confirm this and call the first half of the 19th century the "Little Ice Age". And here is an important question: who will suffer more from a 3-year cold, Europe or Russia? Of course, Europe will cry louder, but Russia will suffer more. And that's why. In Europe (Germany, Switzerland), the time of summer plant growth reaches 9 months, and in Russia - about 4 months. This means that we were not only 2 times less likely to grow sufficient supplies for the winter, but also 2.5 times more likely to starve to death during a longer winter. And if in Europe the population suffered, then in Russia the situation was 4 times worse, including in terms of mortality. This is, if you do not take into account any magic. Well, what if...
I offer readers a magical version of the development of events. Suppose the existence of a wizard who twisted his staff and changed the movement of high-altitude winds so that the sun would not block us. But this option does not convince me. No, I believe in good wizards, but I don’t believe in foreigners who draped across the ocean in tens of thousands, instead of calmly coming and staying in Russia, where it’s so good, where they are always welcome, I don’t believe.
Apparently, after all, Russia was much worse than Europe. Moreover, it was our territory that was probably the source of climatic troubles for the entire hemisphere. And in order to hide this (someone needed it), all references to this were removed or reworked.
But if you think about it, how could it be? The entire northern hemisphere is suffering from climatic anomalies and does not know what it is. The first scientific version appears only after 100 years, and it does not hold water. But the cause of the events must be located precisely at our latitudes. And if in America and Europe this reason is not observed, then where can it be if not in Russia? Nowhere else. And just then the Russian Empire pretends that it does not know what it is about at all. And we did not see, and did not hear, and in general everything is in order with us. Familiar behavior, and very suspicious.
Nevertheless, one should take into account the missing estimated population of Russia in the 19th century, numbering in the tens, and maybe hundreds of millions. They could die both from the very unknown cause that caused climate change, and from severe consequences in the form of hunger, cold and disease. And also let's not forget about the traces of widespread large-scale fires that destroyed our forests around that time.
As a result, the expression "secular spruce" (centennial) bears the imprint of rare antiquity, although the normal life of this tree is 400 ... 600 years. And numerous craters, identical to the traces of explosions of nuclear weapons, can not be taken into account for the time being, since it is not possible to accurately determine their age.
Addendum: Dependence of average annual temperatures on powerful eruptions:
But scientists cannot find the reason for the cooling of 1258.
The mysterious eruption of 1258 excites volcanologists.
It is believed that air masses in different latitudinal hemispheres do not communicate with each other. Those. air from the southern hemisphere does not enter the northern hemisphere and vice versa. What can you say about currents.
Questions, questions...
When asked when and why? given by the author Condorita the best answer is This is the name of 1816, in which unusually cold weather reigned in Europe and North America. Until today, it remains the coldest year since the beginning of documenting meteorological observations.
In 1920, American climate researcher William Humphreys found an explanation for the "year without summer". He linked climate change to the Tambora volcano eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the most violent volcanic eruption ever observed, directly costing the lives of 90,000 people.
In March 1816, the temperature continued to be winter. In April and May there was a supernatural amount of rain and hail. In June and July it was freezing every night in America. Up to a meter of snow fell in New York and the northeastern United States. Germany was repeatedly tormented by strong storms with downpours and snowfall, many rivers (including the Rhine) overflowed their banks. In Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, in the Balkans, snow fell every month. Rivers froze in southern China, tropical Taiwan was littered with snow. The unusual cold led to a catastrophic crop failure.
Answer from Ludmila Smirnova[guru]
The year without summer is the name given to the year 1816, during which Europe and North America experienced unusually cold weather. Until today, it remains the coldest year since the beginning of documenting meteorological observations. In the US, he was also nicknamed Eighteen hundred and frozen to death, which translates as one thousand-eight hundred-frozen-to-death.
Only in 1920, the American climate researcher William Humphreys found an explanation for the "year without summer". He linked climate change to the Tambora volcano eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the most violent volcanic eruption ever observed, directly costing the lives of 90,000 people. Its volcanic explosive index (VEI) eruption in April 1815 had a Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI) of seven, and a massive 150 km³ of ash into the atmosphere caused a northern hemisphere volcanic winter effect that lasted for several years.
It took several months for the ash to spread through the earth's atmosphere, so in 1815 the effects of the eruption in Europe had not yet been felt so strongly. However, in March 1816 the temperature continued to be winter. In April and May there was a supernatural amount of rain and hail. In June and July it was freezing every night in America. Up to a meter of snow fell in New York and the northeastern United States. Germany was repeatedly tormented by strong storms with downpours and snowfall, many rivers (including the Rhine) overflowed their banks. In Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, in the Balkans, snow fell every month. Rivers froze in southern China, tropical Taiwan was littered with snow. The unusual cold led to a catastrophic crop failure. In the spring of 1817, grain prices increased tenfold, famine broke out among the population, accompanied by epidemics of cholera and typhus. Tens of thousands of Europeans, still suffering from the destruction of the Napoleonic Wars, emigrated to America.
Answer from Marie[guru]
we have never had this, every summer from +40 to +50, and sometimes more
Answer from N@taly[guru]
When summer doesn't come...
Scientists have found that volcanic eruptions can cause the Earth to cool
Quite often one hears that a volcano wakes up in one place or another on the Earth and the local population is forced to evacuate to remote areas. But sometimes the victims of this natural phenomenon are people living hundreds of kilometers from the eruption area.
Oral traditions of the tribes inhabiting northwest Alaska describe a disaster called "the time when summer did not come." Almost the entire local population died of starvation. Deserted villages were seen by travelers who visited these places at the end of the 18th century. And recently, a group of American scientists of various specialties managed to find out the causes of this natural cataclysm.
First of all, tree cuts in this area of Alaska were investigated. The fact is that the thickness of the annual rings of trees increases with an increase in air temperature and, first of all, with the temperature of the summer period. It turned out that the smallest amount of wood growth over the past 900 years corresponds to the summer of 1783. That is, the summer that year was very cold: according to experts, the temperature in July and August did not rise above zero.
According to volcanologists, on June 8, 1783, there was a powerful eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland. In those days, so-called luminous fog was observed in many places in Europe and North America. He didn't mind the wind and the rain. In some places it was so thick that it was impossible to see the Sun near the horizon through it. Some eyewitnesses said that he had an unpleasant odor. Its humidity did not exceed 68%. Something similar happened in 1831 after the eruption of another volcano in Iceland - Babuyan Claro. On some nights of that year, according to eyewitnesses, it was possible to read without lighting.
Additional night "lighting" - a consequence of a volcanic eruption, accompanied by the release of a huge amount of dust into the atmosphere. At the same time, according to the conclusions of scientists, the transparency of the atmosphere decreases and, as a result, the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface decreases. Which, of course, leads to a decrease in temperature. Sulfur-containing volcanic gases also contribute greatly to climate change. They react with water vapor in the atmosphere and form acid crystals that reflect solar radiation back into space. The Laki eruption released about 280 million tons of sulfur-containing gases into the atmosphere. This led to a decrease in temperature throughout the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth. And in Japan, 1783 is also listed as "the year without a summer."
However, the Laki eruption is not the worst compared to the giant eruption of the Toba supervolcano in Sumatra 74 thousand years ago. Then about 3 thousand cubic meters were thrown into the air. kilometers of debris, resulting in a lake 100 km long and 60 km wide. According to scientists, the temperature on the planet then dropped by an average of 5 degrees, and the summer temperature in high latitudes - by 15 degrees. This is indirectly confirmed by the data of genetics, which indicate that 70 thousand years ago there was a sharp decrease in the population of the Earth - about five times.
Does something similar threaten us? A few weeks ago, scientists from the US Geological Survey and a number of universities, who were exploring a giant supervolcanic complex located on the territory of Yellowstone National Park, reported that they were able to identify the frequency of its supereruptions - about once every 600 thousand years. And the last eruption happened just about 600 thousand years ago.
Two centuries ago, the planet Earth experienced the famous "year without summer", when the summer months instead of warmth and sun brought snow and cold rains and winds. People were inclined to consider this natural phenomenon a divine punishment, but what really happened?
What was the "year without summer"?
In the summer of 1816, a storm of biblical proportions covered the northern hemisphere. After the usual and expected spring, the temperature dropped so much that the east of the North American continent from New England to Virginia again experienced snowfalls and frosts that ruined almost the entire crop.
Europe also chilled out of season. In the northern part, winter snows have not melted, and the southern regions, accustomed to the sun, experienced 130 days of heavy rains between April and September. The incessant cold and darkness inspired the young Mary Shelley to write the famous novel "Frankenstein".
In Europe and Asia, many farms suffered incredible losses, causing famine and epidemics of typhus and other diseases. In India, hunger and cold resulted in a new strain of cholera that killed millions of people.
What caused such a low temperature?
Rejecting religious interpretations, scientists blame the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora for the bad weather. In April 1815, there was a strong eruption, which is considered one of the most destructive in the history of mankind. The ejection of volcanic ash reached the stratosphere, and a huge cloud caused a veil that blocked the sun's rays.
More than 10 thousand inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Sumbawa died from the direct eruption. As a result of volcanic activity, the unique Tambor culture and language were destroyed. A veil of ash caused a rapid decrease in the Earth's temperature by several degrees and not only deprived the planet of summer, but also claimed the lives of almost 100 thousand people.
In this post, I want to show you all the wretchedness of traditional school education, in the first place - the traditional study of history.
Because we're going to talk about cause and effect.
The problem with our education as a whole is the sheer inability to explain why. Starting with why you need to know what year Alexander the Great was born. And why it can be forgotten immediately after the exam. And why is it necessary to know in what year he made his crossing of Suvorov through Kutuzov, but it is absolutely not necessary to know why he did it, and what were the reasons, and what happened as a result.
And this applies not only to history. In education, in general, darkness in terms of “why”, darkness in principle. Anyone who has studied music theory knows that major is happy and minor is sad. Anyone who has tried to teach her at 35 knows that even under torture, teachers usually cannot explain why. And if you put “Highway Star” by the group “Deep Purple” under their noses, written in G minor, and ask them to repeat once again about the sad minor - for some reason they lose their temper.
Why is that? Why is history, geography, music theory, and even comparative linguistics most often presented as a collection of incoherent facts, dates and figures, but the presentation is completely lacking in causes and effects?
Because it's difficult.
Now I will show you an example. There is nothing secret in it. All information is gleaned from Wikipedia, scattered fermentation through the pages. You could do it yourself. But they didn't. Therefore, I will tell you.
I will tell you about cause and effect.
Fasten seat belts. It will be dizzying.
Tambor volcano erupted in 1815 that in Indonesia. It took place from 5 to 11 (according to other sources - until 17th) April, and is one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in documented history. On the scale of volcanic eruptions VEI this eruption has 7 points. For comparison, the average price of buckwheat is now about 37 hryvnia per kilogram. And an eruption of 8 points on the VEI scale will most likely throw you and me back to the Stone Age, where no prices for buckwheat will bother you anymore.
Therefore, 7 VEI points is quite a lot. The roar of the eruption was heard for two and a half - three thousand kilometers. Tsunami waves hit the islands of Indonesia, reaching a height of up to four meters. It is estimated that 4,600 people died as a result of the eruption itself.
Spoiler: The total death toll from the eruption and its first-order consequences is estimated at 70,000. By the way, this is a conservative estimate.
Because the result of the eruption of the Tambora volcano was the so-called "year without summer." 1816 coldest year in recorded history.
(For erudite bores: it’s a little more complicated in reality. In 1809 there was another catastrophic volcanic eruption, which we know about only from the isotope analysis of the Arctic ice. It happened, but it is not known where and how. As a result of these two eruptions the entire decade of 1810-1820 was abnormally cold. In 1812, one of the factors behind Napoleon's defeat in Russia was abnormal frosts, which are most likely the result of the first of the eruptions. Napoleon lost the war due to a volcanic eruption. Including.)
Let's return to the Tambora volcano. The enormous amount of ash thrown out by the volcano into the atmosphere led to the so-called "volcanic winter" in the northern hemisphere of the planet. The year 1816, the so-called "year without summer", is the result of a volcanic eruption.
The ash released into the atmosphere took time to spread across the planet and make an impact. Therefore, in 1815, nothing of the kind happened. But a year later, in 1816, spring did not come. In March, the temperature remained wintery. In April and May there were rains, hail, snow - depending on where. In Switzerland, it was snowing all year, for example. In the US that summer there were regular frosts.
Abnormal cold led to crop failure and famine. Grain prices in Europe in the spring of 1817 rose an average of ten times.
As a result, tens of thousands of Europeans emigrated to America. Mostly farmers, the first to suffer from crop failure. As a result of this invasion (and their own crop failure), some Americans also changed their place of residence, leaving New England for the New York area and the Midwest. As a result this formed the so-called. "American Heartland" in the US Midwest. With an increase in population, the states of Indiana (December 1816) and Illinois (1818) were born.
As a result With all of these movements and migrations, demographics have changed in New York State. In general, western New York was seen as super-religious; after the migrations, the number of recently moved Europeans and New Englanders significantly increased in it.
Thus, western New York State became the nucleus of the abolitionist movement and the struggle to abolish slavery. As a result of the volcanic eruption of Tambora.
Let's continue on the little things.
As a result of crop failures for several years in a row there was a mass migration from the state of Vermont - it is believed that during that period and for these reasons from 10 to 15 thousand people left it.
Among them was the Smith family, who moved to... that's right, western New York. Their son, Joseph Smith, would soon become the founder of the Mormon sect, the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
As a result of the release of a huge amount of ash into the atmosphere, sunsets in those years were especially colorful. They are responsible for the particular yellowish palette of colors in the paintings of the time - for example, the German romantic Caspar David Friedrich, and the British romantic William Turner, in whose work the "yellow period" would continue until the end of the 1820s.
As a result of rising food prices, including - oats for horses, the German inventor Karl Drez thinks about replacing horses with mechanical devices. In 1818, he received a patent for the so-called. "railcar", which is now, however, called the word "runbike". Drez's invention became the prototype of both the modern handcar and the modern bicycle.
As a result of hunger, which he experienced as a child in Darmstadt (Germany), a certain Justus von Liebig devotes himself to the study of plants and agronomy. He will become the founder of modern agrochemistry, and the first in history to synthesize mineral fertilizers.
As a result of abnormal weather conditions in India there is a mutation of cholera vibrio. Cholera mows down a fair part of the British army and cheerfully walks the planet, reaching Russia by 1830. This is called the First Cholera Epidemic in Russia; the total number of deaths - up to 200 thousand people. Quarantine declared. Someone Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is actually locked in his estate, where he intended to leave for a very short time; he waits out the epidemic there and creates a cycle of works known as "Boldino Autumn" - they include "Eugene Onegin", "Belkin's Tales", "Little Tragedies", poems and poems.
As a result of bad weather in 1816, in the “year without summer”, a group of vacationers at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva discovers that the rest is hopelessly ruined: the endless rain on some days does not even allow you to leave the house. The audience read aloud, including the work "Phantasmagorina, or Collection of stories about ghosts, spirits, phantoms, etc." Lord Byron, who is present, invites each of the vacationers to compose their own terrible story, and then read it aloud.
So a certain Mary Godwin, then not yet engaged to Percy Bysshe Shelley, known to us as Mary Shelley, writes the work "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus".
Byron himself also begins to write a story, but abandons it. Byron's personal physician, John William Polidori, ends the story. It would be published under Byron's name in April 1819 in The New Monthly Magazine, under the title "The Vampire", and would be the first literary work about vampires in history.
And all this was due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815.
A year without summer
“The Year Without Summer”, or “The Year of Poverty” - under such names the year 1816 went down in history, which is still considered the coldest year since meteorological observations have been recorded. In America, this year was dubbed “Eighteen hundred and frozen to death”, which means “thousand-eight hundred-frozen-to-death”. The events of 1816 became a vivid example of the impact of climate change on the life of human society and left a mark on world culture.
The summer of 1816 in northern Europe and eastern North America was marked by unusually low temperatures. The snow melted only in July, and in August the first frosts hit. Cold weather ruined crops in Europe, the US and Canada, causing a major food crisis. In the spring of 1817, grain prices soared 10 times, famine broke out. Thousands of Europeans emigrated to America, but even there, according to the Montreal chronicles, it was not easy.
European temperature anomaly
In the summer of June 5, 1816, a monotonous cold rain fell in Quebec, which after a few days gave way to snow. A snow storm was raging in Montreal. The thermometer dropped below zero. Snowdrifts reached a height of 30 cm, so the movement of carriages and wagons was paralyzed. Sleighs appeared on the streets of the city in summer. The "year without a summer" had disastrous consequences for Europe, where famine and epidemics of 1817-1819 were causing death. mortality among the population has increased several times. None of the contemporaries could even imagine that the main culprit of all misfortunes - the Tambora volcano - is located in another part of the world, in Indonesia, on the island of Sumbawa.
A century later, in 1920, the American scientist William Humphreys established a connection between the anomalous cooling of 1816 and the eruption of the most bloodthirsty volcano Tambor, which happened on April 5, 1815. As a result of the explosion of Tambora, according to various estimates, from 80 to 350 million tons of sulfur compounds were thrown into the Earth's stratosphere (to a height of more than 40 km). The temperature of the gases at the time of the eruption exceeded 500 degrees Celsius. Sulfur compounds have reduced the permeability of the Earth's atmosphere for solar radiation. Air currents in the upper atmosphere carried sulfur clouds around the globe, causing the effect of a "volcanic winter" on the planet.
Other interesting events in the year of the volcanic winter
Consequences of the eruption in addition to the low solar activity characteristic of the period 1790-1820. (Dalton minimum), caused a decrease in the global average annual temperature by 0.4 - 0.7 degrees Celsius. The spread of sulfur gases throughout the atmosphere lasted more than 6 months, so the main impact of climate change occurred in 1816.
The “year without summer” was marked not only by sad events in the world. After 1816, the popularity of the wooden car of Karl Drez, which became the prototype of the bicycle, increased among the population. In the same year, George Byron and his friends Percy and Mary Shelley rested on the shores of Lake Geneva. Bad weather often did not allow them to leave the walls of the house, and friends had fun by making up scary stories. Then the famous story of Mary Shelley "Frankenstein" was born. In July of the same year, Byron's poem "Darkness" appeared, in which a picture of a "volcanic winter" was drawn.