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The Year Without a Summer J commentary The year without a summer J. Luterbacher and C. Pfister The 1815 eruption of Tambora caused an unusually cold summer in much of Europe in 1816. The extreme weather led to poor harvests and malnutrition, but also demonstrated the capability of humans to adapt and help others in worse conditions. arge volcanic eruptions in the tropics The British Isles, France, Benelux countries, Likewise, most crops in the hilly areas of can temporarily alter climate around Germany and Switzerland experienced western and central Europe and the Balkans Lthe world, causing global cooling1 approximately twice the amount of rainfall did not reach maturity. In the lowlands and shifting precipitation patterns. One in June than the 1951 to 1980 baseline. For of central and western Europe, grain and particularly well-described example is the these regions, July was generally less wet, potatoes suffered under unending rain. 1815 eruption of Tambora, which caused the with wet conditions returning again in And of the potatoes and grains that were 1816 “year without a summer” in Europe2–5. August for areas north of 40°N and east of eventually harvested, substantial amounts The unusual cooling and anomalous rainfall 5°E. Recently recovered rainfall data from went on to rot in barns and grain silos14. led to a host of problems for many residents Iberia (not included in Fig. 1) suggests that The cold summer in Iberia had similarly of western and central Europe, and may for much of the summer 1816, eastern Spain strong impacts on agriculture: fruit was of have helped to spur emigration to the was drier than average (M. Barriendos, poor quality and the ripening of grapes and Americas. But as we argue here, the effects personal communication). In Portugal, cereals was delayed, which lowered yields8. of the Tambora eruption were not uniform however, July and August were wetter Cool temperatures and heavy rains resulted across Europe. And people who were not the than usual8. in harvest failure and famine in Ireland, hardest hit showed a surprising willingness Atmospheric circulation over the Wales and parts of Britain. The agricultural to help those who were suffering. summer of 1816 was also anomalous disaster following the Tambora eruption was (Fig. 1). Storm tracks were shifted to the described as “the last great subsistence crisis Summer 1816 after Tambora south, and recurrent low pressure systems in the Western world”14. Large tropical volcanic eruptions impose brought cold air and heavy and long-lasting However, in Scandinavia and the short but substantial energy imbalances rainfall to western and central Europe. northern Baltic region harvests were almost in the climate system. The effects of the The cold and wet conditions have been normal, and in eastern Europe and western eruptions mainly arise from the release of attributed to a weakening of the Asian and Russia the impacts were so minor that the 9 large amounts of SO2, which is transformed African summer monsoons : according to Russian Emperor Alexander I was able to into sulphate aerosols. In the lower this hypothesis, the monsoon weakening provide grains to western Europe along with atmosphere, the particles are removed altered atmospheric circulation over the monetary donations. within a few weeks, and have no long-term North Atlantic and Europe, leading to more The crisis in the western Mediterranean, climatic effects1. However, particles that frequent low pressure systems and generally western and central Europe persisted are formed in the stratosphere — above a stronger westerly and north-westerly air beyond 1816. In 1817, grain prices rose about 15 km in altitude — can persist for flow. Cool weather and heavy precipitation throughout Europe. There were also up a couple of years. The aerosols warm in the year following the eruption could regional differences in the magnitude of the the stratosphere but cool the surface1. have been the consequence of this pattern of spike in prices, depending not only on the The April 1815 eruption of the Tambora atmospheric circulation. local harvest, but also the ease with which volcano, located about 300 km east of Bali, imported grains could be transported. Price resulted in a massive release of sulphur to Climate, harvests, and charity increases were the smallest in cities such the stratosphere. The consequences of the unsettled cold as Cracow (Poland), where the harvest However, the effects were not uniform. In and wet conditions during summer 1816 in was average. Port cities such as London June, July and August of 1816, temperatures parts of Europe were devastating both and Hamburg had only modest price rises were persistently cold — 2 to 4°C below economically and socially3,10–12. Modelling of thanks to lower transport costs, whereas the 1951–1980 reference period — over climate and society interactions13 — albeit prices soared in inland areas that relied on western and central Europe and the western simplified — suggests that extreme weather the expensive transport of food upstream Mediterranean (Fig. 1). But in eastern events can have a range of consequences, along towpaths14. Europe, western Russia and parts of eastern including immediate first-order effects on Grain shortages and price hikes may Scandinavia, summer temperatures were biomass production and water availability have led to undernourishment, which in normal or slightly warmer than average. as well as fourth-order impacts such as an turn could have caused the unusually small Temperature fluctuations in the central increase in charitable giving (Fig. 2). size of birth cohorts in 1817 and 181813. The and eastern Mediterranean are less certain, The extremely cold of summer 1816 level of vulnerability to undernourishment owing to a lack of temperature station data manifested in record-breaking delays in seems to be a function of market integration for these areas6,7. the start of plant growth11,13. When finally as well as local conditions. Only mild food The limited rainfall records suggest picked in early November, the few grapes deprivation occurred in the grain-growing that precipitation over parts of Europe was that had survived on their vines in France districts in western Switzerland13. In anomalous throughout the summer of 1816. and Switzerland were still hard and green. contrast, famine was pronounced in regions 246 NATURE GEOSCIENCE | VOL 8 | APRIL 2015 | www.nature.com/naturegeoscience © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved commentary 500 hPa geopotential height anomaly Temperature anomaly Change in precipitation 70° N 50° N June 30° N 30° W 0° 30° E 30° W 0° 30° E 30° W 0° 30° E 70° N 50° N July 30° N 30° W 0° 30° E 30° W 0° 30° E 30° W 0° 30° E 70° N 50° N August 30° N 30° W 0° 30° E 30° W 0° 30° E 30° W 0° 30° E –3 –2.5 –2 –1.5 –1 –0.5 00.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 20 60 100 140 180 220 ° C% Figure 1 | Climate anomalies with respect to the 1951–1980 period in 1816. During June (top row), July (middle) and August (bottom) of 1816, low and high pressure anomalies persisted over much of Europe (left column). These anomalies resulted in cooling over much of western and central Europe, but warming to the east (middle column). Rainfall was also anomalously high over parts of Europe, particularly in June and August (right column). Data from independently reconstructed climate variables from long instrumental station records7. Pressure is presented as 500 hPa geopotential height in geopotential decametres. of eastern Switzerland that were in the early pastor had to hire a man with a donkey to provided they worked for a contracted stages of industrialization, and hence were distribute the gifts to the poor. amount of time for a local employer; their dependent on grain exports from the bread For others, emigration was a way to employer directly reimbursed the ship baskets of southern Germany. To prevent escape from the misery, but relatively few captain for the passenger’s fare. However, rioting in southern Germany, however, local emigrants — fewer than 60,000 — managed when the Philadelphia regional job market rulers embargoed grain exports, and thereby to cross the Atlantic. Most of them came was flooded by jobseekers in 1817 and 1818, cut off the textile workers to the south. from Great Britain and Ireland, because captains could not find employers for their A pastor in the town of St Gallen, they could get to the harbours from which passengers, and thus lost interest16. eastern Switzerland, described the suffering the ships departed for relatively small fares. The violent eruption of a volcano experienced in the most vulnerable For most people in the hotspots of the that few Europeans of the nineteenth households in this region, which moved a crisis, in Germany and Switzerland, the century would ever see influenced climate, girl to deliver a pouch containing 25 gulden boat trip down the Rhine required to reach agriculture, and societies in Europe and (today about 4,400 Swiss francs) along with continental harbours was too expensive. America. The summer of 1816 (and the a note stating, “My cash for the poor. Jesus Even this moderate number of emigrants following couple of years) therefore provides may bless this small gift.” (ref. 15). Her act, was enough to end one popular scheme a remarkable case study for the exploration mentioned in the pastor’s next sermon, of getting to the USA on a low budget. of various direct and indirect interactions sparked a wave of charitable giving that Previously, emigrants travelling to the port between climate variability and human resulted in so many donations that the of Philadelphia could sail without paying, history. The level of human suffering and NATURE GEOSCIENCE | VOL 8 | APRIL 2015 | www.nature.com/naturegeoscience 247 © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.
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