THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER

The weather this summer, so far, has been lousy. However, compared to 1816 which was known as the “Year without a summer” or even, “Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death”, had one of the most unusual weather patterns in recorded history. The problem started on the island of Island of Sumbawa, in the Indonesian archipelago, halfway around the world, when Mount Tambora literally “blew its top” and erupted on April 5, 1815, and again on April 11. It was the most explosive eruption in the last 10,000 years. Volcanos are measure by a VEI (Volcanic Explosively Index). Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii and Mt St Helen were both 5s while Tambora was a 7. Each increase in number represents a 10 fold increase in power. The sound of the explosion was heard 1,600 miles away and it is estimated that 10 billion tons of earth and ash were thrown into the atmosphere. The height of the mount was 14,100 prior to the explosion and 9,354 ft. after. For two days it was pitch black 370 miles away.

All of that dust was thrown into the upper stratosphere where it would circle the globe for several years and carried by the prevailing winds to Europe, and eventually North America. During the spring and summer of 1815, a “dry fog” covered most of both areas. It lowered the temperature, shortened the growing season and decreased the crop yield but worst was to come the following year. Throughout Western Europe and North America spring never came in 1816 but instead snow and cold weather persisted throughout the summer. On June 4, 1816 a chilling frost hit our area and two days later snow fell in Albany, as it was to do, on and off, for the next two months. An Albany resident wrote in his diary that “frost killed most of the fruit trees and corn and vegetables crop were injured.” He also worried that the recently sheared sheep might die of the cold. In New Haven, Conn. the June ave. temperature in 1816 was 60 degrees, 7 degrees lower than the previous year. Three “cold waves” swept upper New York- one in June, one in July and one in August. This weather destroyed all but the hardiest grains and vegetables. Indian corn a staple crop for human and animals, was killed off.

Today if a part of the Country is hit by a weather crisis, we have systems in place to provide emergency assistance. But in 1816 Federal tax revenue was only $3 per person and was in no position to offer assistance. This was also just before the great expansion of the roads and canals, so even surpluses in other regions could not be share. Our ancestors were, for the most part, subsistence farmers and able to survive for a year on short rations. The big problem came in the spring of 1817 when there was no see for new crops and no money with which to buy it. In Albany that year wheat increased by 30% but few had any money to purchase it. The need was so great in the Town of Malta that the Town Board in 1817 authorize a 50% increase for the Overseer of the Poor, from $50 to $75. The need continue and in 1818 the unheard sum of $550 was authorized. To show perspective, school inspectors were paid 25 cents a day when they made visits to a school. The $550 exceeded all other expenses in the Town that year. The need was truly great, but so were the sacrifices made by those citizens who were able to help their neighbors. Sounds like the spirit of Rotary, long before there was a Rotary. Paul Perreault Town of Malta Historian Summer, 2016