Year Without a Summer

Frankenstein

I watched this interesting story on the history channel the other day.  The title was The Little Ice Age and it talked about the year 1816 when there was significant climate abnormalities across Northern Europe, northeastern United States and eastern Canada.  This time period is often referred to as the "Year Without a Summer" or "1800 and froze to death".

Temperatures on an average spring/summer day stay relatively stable around 68-77 degrees and summer snow is unheard of.  However, in May 1816 a dry fog covered the northeastern United States and frost destroyed most crops.  New York saw snow in early June and river ice was observed as far as Pennsylvania. There were dramatic temperature swings, going from 95 degree temperatures down to below freezing temperatures in mere hours.

It is now believed that the cause of these severe weather changes was due to a volcanic eruption in Indonesia the year prior.  Who would have guessed that!  The eruption caused volcanic dust to enter the upper atmosphere, changing the weather pattern and lowering Earth's temperatures. Different parts of the world saw brown and red colored snow and the bitter temperatures dropped in the winter of 1816 to as low as -26 degrees.

Another interesting tidbit, is during the summer of 1816 when the world was stuck in this frozen landscape, the young author Mary Shelley traveled to Switzerland with friends.  Since the weather outside was too cold and dreary for any outdoor activities, the friends decided to stay in doors and share ghost stories.  An idea arouse that they each would write their own supernatural story to share amongst the group.  Which is where Mary Shelley brought to life FRANKENSTEIN...... DUN DUN DUN!  

I personally can say that one whole year without a summer is a lot more frightening than Frankenstein.  So the next time the sun is shinning on that nice summer day, enjoy, cause the cold could last longer than you think.