Today is an overcast, dreary January day in South Carolina. I am sitting here in front of the computer screen, wondering if/when the predicted big winter storm is going to hit. We have made it through to mid-afternoon unscathed. I am hoping the precip holds off until the temperatures dip a little more, and we can skip the ice fest and just deal with the snow. If there's one thing I hate worse than cold weather, it's cold weather paired with a power outage.
It's been a rough winter for many in other parts of the country this year, and we are only halfway through it. Cold weather always has me pining for warmth and sunshine and summer. Some of my fondest memories are of sitting near a body of water in a comfy lounge chair, soaking up the sun on one of those perfect days between spring and summer. You know the day I mean. It's not too hot or humid, not a cloud in the sky, temp about 74 degrees F. Growing up in Texas, I've had this day happen in January a time or two. Definitely won't be happening today.
Whenever the warm weather finally arrives, we should all be thankful for it. It certainly is not guaranteed. Nearly two hundred years ago, much of the northern hemisphere experienced a phenomenon known as 'The Year Without Summer'. New England experienced both the latest recorded frosts (June) and the earliest (August). Daytime highs and lows were well below average everywhere records were kept. The unfortunate congruence of unseasonable lows with planting season spelled disaster. This was long before we developed a national transportation infrastructure, so if local food sources went kaput, you went hungry.
It was nearly 100 years before science and technology caught up enough to render an opinion on what may have caused 1816 to be such a cold year. Scientists determined it was a series of volcanic events, culminating with the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815.
Before today, if you had said 'Tambora' to me, I would have thought you were talking about a drummer in a rock band. But no. Mount Tambora is a volcano in Indonesia. Its eruption was many times bigger than that of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Tambora was also bigger than its more famous Indonesian cousin, Krakatoa (1883). Tambora dumped so much stuff into the atmosphere, the stuff screened some of our sunlight and had a cooling effect. Weather patterns worldwide were impacted for three years afterward. Famine, floods, disease, and riots swept throughout Europe and Asia as a result.
Here in the U.S., the crop failures of 1816 pressured many to leave the northeast, hoping for better growing conditions and milder weather. The Year Without Summer may have been the final impetus needed to head west and see what opportunities lay there.
As soon as I stepped outside to document today's dreariness and wrap up this post, a raindrop hit me in the eyeball. At least it was still rain - but for how long? Is it too late to request a Year Without Winter?
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I hope the rest of the winter is milder for you!
How interesting about the year without a summer. I remember reading about it in Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but didn’t know they had discovered the cause. Thanks for sharing!
Wow that's a fascinating coincidence. I often compare one of my books (The Dala Horse) to Little House - 'think Little House meets Nancy Drew'.