The Year Without a Summer - 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History - Klingaman W.K. and N.P.

The Klingamans' new book, The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, describes the 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora (Wikipedia) and the subsequent changes in the weather and societies around the world.

I picked this book up as I am working on a sequel to The Smell of Truthiness involving a similar scenario for the eruption of a volcano in the future.  I wanted a to find out what changes to expect in the weather and what stresses this would put on governments and societies.

The change in weather had it's greatest impact in the summer of 1816 resulting in cold weather and droughts in NE part of the US.  The growing season was short, wet, and cold in Europe resulting in very poor crop production and food shortages. The population of Illinois and Ohio grew rapidly as farmers gave up on life in cold and dry New England.

J.M.W. Turner - Sunset painting from 1816

Artists were influence by the weather.  Paintings of sunsets contained more red colors.  Scientists have used digital images to determine the effects volcanic activity on sunset paintings (NY. Times - Aug. 2015) .  The woman who was to become Mary Shelly began writing her book about a reanimated creature known as Frankenstein's monster.

The author covers the effects of the volcano on most of the developed world with good climate records.  It was interesting to read all of the false attributions as to the cause of the sudden cool climate.  It took the monitoring of recent volcanic activity in the latter part of the 20th century to piece together the causes of climate change in 1816. The book provides a wealth of information on how governments responded to the crisis.  This can be instructive as a similar event will likely happen in the future.

Mt. Tambora Effects - 5 min.