, United States (USA) (American Colonies)
1816 - Year without a summer
The year 1816 has been aptly characterized as the year without a summer. Several of the preceding summers were so cold as to suggest a possible future famine. This tendency to frigidity reached its greatest intensity in the summer of 1816. The phenomenal coldness of that year was not confined to a small area. It prevailed through the United States and Canada and extended to Europe. That there were reasons for alarm, especially in the new settlements of eastern Maine, already impoverished by untoward events extending through several years, will be understood by a perusal of the following graphic account from a reliable source :
"The year 1816 was known throughout the United States and Europe as the coldest ever experienced by any person then living. Very few persons now living can recollect it. The following is a brief summary of the weather during each month of that year: January was so mild as to render fires almost unnecessary in parlors. February, with the exception of a few days, was like its predecessor. March was cold and boisterous during the early part of the month. The latter part was mild. April began warm but grew colder as the month advanced. May was more remarkable for frowns than smiles. Buds and fruits were frozen. Ice formed half an inch thick. Corn was killed and again planted and replanted so long as there was the slightest prospect of success. June was the coldest ever known in this latitude. Frost and ice were common. Almost every green thing, including fruit, was destroyed. Snow fell to the depth of seven inches in Vermont and Maine, three in the interior of New York and Massachusetts. There were a few warm days in June. It was called a dry season. The wind, fierce and cold, blew steadily from the north. Mothers knit extra socks and mittens for their children in the spring. Wood-piles were renewed. Planting and shivering went on together. Farmers worked out their taxes on the roads in overcoats and
mittens. In Vermont, a farmer had driven his sheep to pasture some miles away at the usual time. On the 7th of June there was a heavy fall of snow. The cold being severe, the owner went to look after them. As
he left the house he said sportively to his wife, 'It being June, if I do not return in a reasonable time send the neighbors after me. ' Night came, the storm had increased, and he was still absent.
"The next morning the neighbors were alarmed and started in search of the missing man. On the morning of the third day, he was found with his feet badly frozen and unable to walk.
"July was accompanied by frost and ice. On the 5th, ice of the thickness of common window-glass was found throughout New England, New York and some parts of Pennsylvania. Indian corn was nearly all destroyed except on elevated lands. August was more cheerless than the earlier summer months. Nearly all the corn that had escaped thus far was so badly frozen that it was cut for fodder. September furnished about two weeks of the mildest weather of the season.
October produced more than its share of cold weather. November was cold and brought snow and sleighing. In marked contrast with the preceding months of 1816, December was mild and comfortable. Such is the summary of the general weather conditions of the phenomenal year of 1816."
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