Savannah, Georgia, USA
1816 - THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER

1816 has gone down in Almanac fame as the “poverty year,” and “eighteen hundred and froze-to-death.” It was comprised of a backward spring with record late snows (heavy snows fell in New England between June 6th and 11th), and an exceptionally cold summer featuring frosts in July and August. On July 4th, the high temperature at Savannah, Georgia, was only 46°F. Finally, there was a drought during early fall that culminated in a killing frost well before the end of September. “In all,” wrote weather historian David Ludlum, “a most distressing season for the rural economy of northern New York and northern New England.” But crop failures were widespread, not only in New England, but also across Canada and Western Europe. The apparent cause of this anomalously cold summer was the eruption of the Tambora Volcano, half a world away in Indonesia, in 1815. A tremendous cloud of fine ash and dust was ejected into the stratosphere, where it remained for a very long time. This ash significantly reduced the heat and light of the sun, and resulted in a cooldown throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Top ELEVEN Most Memorable Weather Events
Farmers' Almanac


www.farmersalmanac.com/ weather/ 2007/ 12/ 21/ top-eleven-most-memorable-weather-events/

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