Year without a Summer

1816 summer temperature anomaly compared to average temperatures from 1971 to 2000

The Year without a Summer was 1816. The year before that, in 1815, a volcano had erupted in the Dutch East Indies. The volcano's name was Mount Tambora. The volcanic ash from the eruption spread across the world. It darkened the sky, and made the Earth's surface colder.

In much of Europe and northern North America, summer never came. In New England and Germany, there were frozen lakes in the middle of June. Flowers never bloomed, and every day was cold. These places and China suffered famine.

Year Without A Summer Media

• 

  Sulfate concentration in ice cores from Greenland. An unknown eruption occurred before 1810. The peak after 1815 was caused by Mount Tambora.

• 

  Chichester Canal (1828) by J. M. W. Turner