The Year ' Without a Summer"

Ships' Logbooks and "The Year ' Without a Summer" ,

Michael Chenoweth Elkridge, Maryland

ABSTRACT

Weather data extracted from the logbooks of 227 ships of opportunity are used to document the state of the global climate system in the summer of 1816 ("The Year Without a Summer"). Additional land-based data, some never before used, supplement the marine network. The sources of the data are given and briefly discussed. The main highlights of the global climate system in the 3-year period centered on the summer of 1816 include:

• a cold-phase Southern Oscillation (SO) (La Nina) event in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter of 1815-16, which was preceded and followed by warm-phase SO (El Nino) events in the winters of 1814/15 and 1816/17; • strong Asian winter and summer monsoons, which featured anomalous cold in much of south and east Asia in the winter of 1815/16 and near- or above-normal rains in much of India in the summer of 1816; • below-normal air temperatures (1°-2°C below 1951-80 normals) in parts of the tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific (in the Galapagos Islands), which imply below-normal sea surface temperatures in the same areas; • a severe drought in northeast Brazil in 1816-17; • an active and northward-displaced intertropical zone in most areas from Mexico eastward to Africa; • generally colder-than-normal extratropical temperature anomalies in both hemispheres; • an area of anomalous warmth (1°-2°C above 1951-80 normals) in the Atlantic between Greenland and the Azores during at least the spring and summer of 1816; and • an active Atlantic hurricane season in both 1815 and 1816.

A general circulation model simulation of the spatial patterns of high latitude NH temperature anomalies in the first winter following a major volcanic eruption (Graf et al. 1993) is not fully supported by the results in the North American sector where warming in Greenland was observed in 1816, as the GCM indicates cooling. The area of maximum cooling over North America near 50°N, 90°W in 1816 is north of the GCM results. This second difference may be partly attributed to the effects of the cold-phase SO (La Nina) event superimposed on the volcanic signal. Elsewhere in North America, Asia, and Europe, there is generally good agreement between the observed patterns and the GCM results.

1. Introduction produced a sharp rise in the prices of most agricultural commodities, ruined many small farmers, and In the December 1924 issue of the Monthly strained an economy still recovering from the War of Weather Review, W. Milham described the unusual 1812. In the following 70 years since Milham's ar- weather of the year 1816 as probably the most writ- ticle, the events of that summer have been described ten about weather event in American history (Milham in ever-increasing detail in further articles and mono- 1924). Repeated outbreaks of cold weather and a se- graphs (Hoyt 1958; Ludlam 1966; Chenoweth 1985; vere summer drought contributed to crop failures that Wilson 1985a,b; Hamilton 1986, to mention only sources concerned with North America), two books (Post 1977; Stommel and Stommel 1983), and an international conference in 1988 (Harington 1992). The Corresponding author address: Dr. Michael Chenoweth, 6816 Ducketts Lane, Elkridge, MD 21227. 1988 conference brought together a number of re- In final form 28 February 1996. searchers from different fields of study. From both ©1996 American Meteorological Society direct and proxy records of weather, the first attempt

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC to document the worldwide pattern of weather and journals kept on ships from as far back as the 1830s. climate in 1816 was made. Table 1 lists the archives holding ships' logbooks and Meteorological and oceanographic data from the journals queried or visited by the author. A visit to oceans for the eighteenth and early nineteenth centu- maritime museums in the United States in May 1995 ries are only now beginning to be digitized. The best- revealed the extent of the collections (thousands of known example is the data in the Maury Collection logbooks, many on microfilm), and it was not unusual at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. (J. Elms to be told that I was the first person ever to visit and 1995, personal communication). There are only about use the logbooks for climatological purposes. half a dozen abstracts from ships' logbooks for the Land-based records also form an integral part of the year 1816 in the Maury Collection. Fortunately, the 1816 dataset. Many archives contain land records in the sparsity of the data can be overcome by using the form of weather diaries and journals, correspondence, massive collection of logbooks of the British Royal lighthouse records, traveller accounts, surveying expe- Navy, housed at the Public Record Office in London. ditions, learned journals, almanacs, and local histories. In addition, a search made at other institutions and Newspapers are a very important source. Figure 1 pre- maritime museums has uncovered previously unstud- sents summer temperature data taken from a 23-year ied 1816 weather data. series published monthly in a Nassau, Bahamas, news- This article will briefly discuss the archival sources paper from 1815 to 1837 in the collection of the British and data types used to reconstruct the state of the glo- Library Newspaper Library.1 Most coastal newspapers bal climate system in 1816 and also describe that sys- published shipping news containing accounts of tem. It should be kept in mind that other years are storms and other weather data that have not survived represented in these archival sources and that there are in any other form. Table 2 includes a list of institu- other collections holding marine data that do not cover tions holding land-based records for the 1816 period. the years 1815-17. A more complete treatment of the entire dataset will be the subject of a more compre- hensive work at a future date. 3. Global climate in 1816

The weather data extracted from the ships' log- 2. Data types and data sources books and land records have been gathered, and digi- tization of the data is planned. However, preliminary Historical daily marine data are found largely in analysis offers sufficient information to provide a two primary sources. The most important is the log- coherent picture of the state of the global climate sys- books of ships of opportunity. These form the main tem in the wake of the April 1815 eruption of source of meteorological and oceanographic data. A Tambora. References to marine temperature anoma- second source is passenger or crew journals. These lies are with respect to the Global Ocean Surface Tem- journals often include data normally found in a log- perature Atlas dataset (Bottomley et al. 1990) for the book (position, course, weather) and are a valuable reference period 1951-80. Only limited marine data addition because often the logbook of the ship on outside of the period November 1815-September which the journal was kept is not now extant. 1816 are available, so comparisons with contempo- Logbooks and journals are widely dispersed and rary normals are not possible but are given when avail- can turn up in surprising places. The largest collec- able for land data. tions are normally found in national archives such as the Public Record Office. Regional archives and a. Tropical Pacific and Southern Oscillation (SO) historical societies are important sources of merchant conditions shipping logbooks as well as naval logbooks not Most compilations of historical El Nino events in- present in government collections. These regional clude 1814 (or 1814-15) as an El Nino year (Eguiguren depositories, including maritime museums, also hold logbooks kept by whalers and sealers. Finally, smaller collections of logbooks are held in places such as 1 The mailing address for the British Library Newspaper Library the archives of the Presbyterian Church (USA), is 120 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HE, England. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which holds logbooks Nassau Royal Gazette and Bahamas Advertiser are found on dating from the 1880s and 1890s, and missionary microfilm reel M.C. 428.

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC 1894; Quinn et al. 1978; Hamilton and Garcia 1986), and Quinn et al. also give 1817 as a year with a moderate El Nino. Data sources used in this study indicate that late 1815 and the first half of 1816 were characterized by cold- phase Southern Oscillation (La Nina) conditions. The available air temperature data in the Pacific indicate air temperatures av- eraging 1.5°C below 1951-80 averages in the Galapagos Islands in late February and early March 1816 (Hill 1816), and near or below normal in other areas of the Pacific except around Hawaii in April 1816 (Hill 1816; von Kotzebue FIG. 1. Average summer temperature anomaly (°C) at Nassau from 1815 to 1821). Barometric pressure data for 1837. Reference normal: period of record is 1815-37. The cold summers of 1815 Bombay (Bombay Courier 1816a,b), and 1816 are especially impressive, as both years are the two driest (fewest number Calcutta (Jameson 1820), and Madras of days with precipitation) in this early series. If the low rainfall frequencies are 2 correlated with local cloud cover, then this may be taken to be evidence of the (The Royal Society ) indicate below- effect of the volcanic dust veil in lowering the surface air temperature. The entire normal pressure anomalies in the first record may also be considered as a proxy record of local sea surface temperature half of 1816, with a rise to above-normal anomalies near and upwind of the prevailing easterly surface wind flow. Note values by late 1816 and continuing into the much smaller negative temperature anomalies after the 1835 eruption of 1817 (Fig. 2). These anomalies are con- Coseguina in Nicaragua. sistent with a Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) shift from La Nina to El Nino phase during 1816-17 (Quinn et al. 1978). southeastern Australia in the Southern Hemisphere Other evidence for a La Nina in 1815-16 includes (SH) summer of 1815/1816 (Nicholls 1988); Kona reports of heavy rains and flooding in Indonesia winds and heavy rains in Hawaii in April 1816, a associated with an unusually severe northwest win- month usually drier than normal in the year follow- ter monsoon (Charleston Courier 1816); reports of abundant bird life on and near the Galapagos Islands and the absence of rainfall in February-March 1816 (Hill 1816); return of normal rainfall to

2 Two bound manuscripts of meteorological observations (series MA. 189) made at the Madras Observatory from 1796 to 1824 are in the library of The Royal Society. The Royal Society's collection of meteorological data extends from 1706 to 1903 and includes instrumental data from throughout the world, with the Middle East, south and Southeast Asia, and Australia strongly represented. Included in the collection (series MA. 146) is an instrumental record kept at Port Jackson, Australia, from 1788 to 1791 during the establishment of the first penal colony in FIG. 2. Monthly surface pressure anomalies (hundredths of an inch) for India Australia. This is certainly the first instrumental for July 1815-April 1819. Records for Madras and Calcutta, India, are combined weather record kept in that country. The mail- to form the record and anomalies calculated from the period of overlap, May ing address for The Royal Society is 6 Carlton 1816-April 1819. July 1815-April 1816 is for Madras only. Negative pressure House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG, England. anomalies tend to be associated with cold-phase (La Nina) SO events.

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC TABLE 1. Institutions with logbooks visited or queried by the author.

Europe

Algemeen Rijksarchief 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands National Maritime Museum Greenwich, England

Archivo General de Indias Seville, Spain Public Record Office Kew, London, England

Centre d'accueil et de recherche Paris, France Riksarkivet Oslo, Norway des Archives nationales Royal Norwegian Naval Museum Horten, Norway City of Dundee District Council Dundee, Scotland Royal Society, The London, England Danish Meteorological Institute Copenhagen, Denmark Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam, Hull Local Studies Library Hull, England the Netherlands

Maritime Information Association London, England Scott Polar Research Institute Cambridge, England

Maritiem Museum Prins Hendrik Rotterdam, Scottish Maritime Museum Irvine, Scotland the Netherlands

North America

Albany Institute of History and Art Albany, NY East Hampton Free Library East Hampton, NY

American Antiquarian Society Worcester, MA Fairfield Historical Society Fairfield, CT

American Philosophical Society Philadelphia, PA Falmouth Historical Society Falmouth, MA

Baker Library, Harvard University Boston, MA Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Hyde Park, NY

Beinecke Library, Yale University New Haven, CT George Hail Free Library Warren, RI

Berkshire Athenaeum Pittsfield, MA Girard College Philadelphia, PA

Boston Public Library Boston, MA Historical Society of Delaware Wilmington, DE

Chester W. Nimitz Library, Annapolis, MD Historical Society of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA U.S. Naval Academy Houghton Library, Cambridge, MA Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor, NY Harvard University Whaling Museum Hudson's Bay Company Archives Winnipeg, Canada Connecticut Historical Society Hartford, CT John Carter Brown Library, The Providence, RI Connecticut State Library Hartford, CT Kendall Whaling Museum Sharon, MA Dartmouth College Library Hanover, NH Library of Congress Washington, DC Davis Library, University of Chapel Hill, NC North Carolina at Chapel Hill Maine Historical Society Portland, ME

Duke University Special Durham, NC Mariners' Museum Library Newport News, VA Collections Library Maryland Historical Society Baltimore, MD

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC TABLE 1. Continued.

North America

Massachusetts Historical Society Boston, MA Presbyterian Church Philadelphia, PA

Mystic Seaport Museum Mystic, CT Princeton University Library Princeton, NJ Archives Nantucket Historical Association Nantucket, MA Providence Public Library Providence, RI National Archives Washington, DC Provincial Archives Fredericton, Canada New Jersey Historical Society Newark, NJ Rhode Island Historical Society Providence, RI New London County New London, CT Historical Society Rogers Memorial Library Southhampton, NY

New York Historical Society New York, NY Sag Harbor Whaling Sag Harbor, NY and Historical Museum New York Public Library New York, NY Shelburne Museum Shelburne, VT Newport Historical Society Newport, RI Smithsonian Institution Archives Washington, DC North Carolina Department of Raleigh, NC Cultural Resources Society for the Preservation Setauket, NY of Long Island Antiquities Nova Scotia Museum Halifax, Canada Suffolk Marine Museum West Sayville, NY Old Dartmouth Whaling Museum New Bedford, MA U.S. Coast Guard Academy New London, CT Peabody Essex Museum Salem, MA Wethersfield Historical Society Wethersfield, CT Penobscot Marine Museum Searsport, ME William L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, MI Philadelphia Maritime Museum Philadelphia, PA University of Michigan ing an El Nino event (Chu 1995); and an ued for several hours. Such a singular change of wind, active hurricane season in the Atlantic in both 1815 in a place where it in general never blows but from and 1816 [see section 3c below; the statistical rela- the east or southeast, could, in my opinion, be caused tionship between El Nino conditions and Atlantic only by the vicinity of land. . . ." But the next day, tropical cyclone frequency is discussed in Gray after sighting low-lying land and sailing at 14°51'S, (1984)]. 138°04/W, he wrote, "The wind veered from north Von Kotzebue (1821) did report a remarkable ab- to northeast and it is difficult to ascertain why the sence of the southeast trades in the eastern South trade-wind changes its general direction here, as no Pacific after sailing in the Rurik from Easter Island high land is near." Frequent heavy rains and strong on 28 March 1816. On 10 April, at 16°39'S, northeast winds continued as the Rurik sailed north- 130° 18'W, he wrote, "It is very remarkable that since west toward the Phoenix Islands. Very heavy rains we left Easter Island the wind blows principally from fell on 4 May at 7°32'S, 162°07'W. the north and northeast, and the usual southeast The American ship Indus sailed from Chilean whal- monsoon [sic] has not blown at all; the weather is ing grounds to the Marquesas Islands in April 1816 always fine, and uniformly after sunset, there is bright on a track to the north and east of the Rurik. The lightning in the north." On 15 April, at 14°41'S, weather was close to normal for the area, with a steady 137°00/W, the ship was "overtaken by heavy rains fresh east-southeast wind and intermittent showers of and gusts of wind from the northwest, which contin- fine rain falling from 10-14 April, while sailing be-

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC TABLE 2. Institutions with land-based records visited or queried by the author.

American Philosophical Society Philadelphia, PA National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD National Library of Medicine Archiv der Brueder Unitat Herrnhut, Germany National Meteorological Bracknell, England Archives of Ontario Toronto, Canada Office Library

Beinecke Library, Yale University New Haven, CT New Brunswick Museum, The Saint John's, Canada

British Library Newspaper Library London, England New York State Cooperstown, NY Historical Association Bowdoin College Library Brunswick, ME Newport Historical Society Newport, RI Cincinnati Historical Society Cincinnati, OH Observatoire de Paris Paris, France Danish Meteorological Institute Copenhagen, Denmark Ohio Historical Society Columbus, OH Harriet Irving Library, Fredericton, Canada University of New Brunswick Peabody Essex Museum Salem, MA

Historical Society of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Royal Academy of Sweden Stockholm, Sweden

Library of Congress Washington, DC Royal Society, The London, England

Maryland Historical Society Baltimore, MD Smithsonian Institution Archives Washington, DC

Massachusetts Historical Society Boston, MA South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, SC University of South Carolina McGill University Archives Montreal, Canada State of Louisiana Baton Rouge, LA Memorial University St. John's, Canada Division of Archives of Newfoundland State of Louisiana New Orleans, LA Meteo France Paris, France Office of State Museum

Mississippi Department of Jackson, MS University of Maryland Libraries College Park, MD Archives and History Waring Historical Library, Charleston, SC National Archives of Canada Ottawa, Canada Medical University of South Carolina

National Climatic Data Center Asheville, NC Williams College Library Williamstown, MA

tween about 15°S, 96°W and 12°S, 108°W. On 15 and Chilean whaling grounds along the coast at about 35°S 16 April, winds fell to very light airs and shifted to in early April. The ship encountered gale force winds between east-southeast and east by north. Wind speeds on 6 days. The west-southwest to south gales encoun- did increase but the wind directions remained fixed tered on 8-10 April from about 32°S, 92°W to 34°S, until the ship reached the Marquesas Islands on 89°W (Coffin 1816) are quite rare at these locations 27 April. On the night of 20-21 April, with an increas- in April (gales usually blow from between south and ing east wind, lightning was seen at times in both the east) (U.S. Navy 1979). southwestern and southeastern skies (Forbes 1816). These and other ship reports from the area indicate The Rurik, that same night, while near 14°S, 141 °W, several possible conditions: (a) an area of below- had rain with a north wind. normal surface pressure over the tropical Pacific in The American whaler Barclay sailed from the the Polynesia sector; (b) a southward displaced area Galapagos Islands in March 1816 and reached the of high pressure protruding southward in about the

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC same longitudes, with anomalously high pressure extending northeastward toward Peru; and (c) an area of below- normal pressure in midlatitude areas west of Chile, extending unusually far northward. The peculiar weather noted by von Kotzebue seems likely to be a reflection of the nascent early 1817 El Nino event, while the lingering effects of the recent La Nina continued almost simultaneously [persisting below-normal air temperatures in the Galapagos Islands and Kona winds in Hawaii on 23-30 April 1816 (Hill 1816)]. b. Winter (1815/16) and summer FIG. 3. Seasonal temperature anomalies (°C) at Madras for 1813-21. Winter (1816) Northern Hemisphere is defined as December through February, spring as March through May, and so monsoons on. Reference normal based on the period of record 1796-1807, 1813-1821. The The winter monsoon in east Asia has main eruption of Tambora took place on 10 April 1815. been reported to have been unusually severe, with anomalous cold and snow in China (Zhang et al. 1992), Japan (Mikami and independent corroboration of heavy June snows last- Tsukamura 1992), and the Bengal area of northeast ing three days reported in Tibetan documents (Zhang India (Jameson 1820). New evidence further supports et al. 1992). this. In addition to the report of flooding in Indonesia Indian summer monsoon rainfall was above nor- (section 3a), the logbook of the East India merchant- mal, with localized severe drought affecting portions man Hope, located at Canton, China (23°06'N, of the Ganges Valley and Bengal (Jameson 1820). The 113°16'E), in late 1815, gives temperature readings Bombay Courier of 31 August 1816 (Bombay Cou- made at 0700 LT by a land-based observer (possibly rier 1816c), carrying a news item from the Madras the harbor master) indicating a temperature of 6.7°C local press, reported that heavy rains in the summer (44°F) on 30 November 1815 and a temperature of of 1816 had produced an unusual lushness in the veg- 4.5°C (40°F) on 1 December 1815 (Pendergrass etation for that time of the year. This may indicate 1815). These readings approach the modern monthly that westward-moving disturbances in the tropical extreme minima at Canton of 4.9°C and 0.9°C in upper easterlies, monsoon depressions, and tropical November and December, respectively, in the 1951- cyclones were more frequent in the southern Bay of 90 period (J. Elms 1995, personal communication). Von Kotzebue (1821a) reported that the winter of 1815/16 in southern Kamchatka had been unusually cold, and in June 1816 described the land as still TABLE 3. Total monthly rainfall (inches) at Bombay (vicinity of Bykalla), India, for the months of July and August 1812-16. appearing wintry. In southern India, Madras experienced the coldest winter in the period 1796-1807, 1813-21, with the winter (December, January, Year July August Total February) temperature 1.5°C below the contemporary average (Fig. 3). 1812 17.69 5.81 23.50

The anomalous cold held on in Tibet into the 1813 19.89 36.25 56.14 summer. W. Webb, surveying the Himalayas, was snowed in for several days about the summer solstice 1814 26.17 27.18 53.35 in the Dharma region of southern Tibet. The local population was reported to be in a state of near fam- 1815 29.25 5.85 35.10 ine, and food had to be ordered in for the surveying 1816 21.88 24.74 46.62 party from the plains (Phillimore 1954). This provides

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC Bengal and less frequent in the northern Bay of Ben- they also were from February to May 1816). In the gal, which could account for the rainfall deficit in summer, anomalies of about -0.3° to -0.5°C pre- Bengal. Rainfall totals for July and August 1816 at vailed between about 0° and 10°N in the vicinity of Bombay were generally ample and much greater than 30°W. Figure 4 does hint at less anomalously cool for the drought years in 1812 and 1815 (Bombay Cou- temperatures in the southern and eastern Caribbean rier 1816d,e) (Table 3). as well. Figure 5 presents the percentage of normal precipitation frequency for the same areas for the c. Tropical Atlantic, Sahel, and northeast Brazil summer of 1816. Data from a smaller number of ships Air and sea surface temperatures in the tropical and for 1815 and early 1817 indicate that cold anomalies subtropical Atlantic indicate mainly below-normal in the tropical Atlantic were well in place as early as temperatures. Figure 4 presents surface air tempera- August 1815 and were still present (but less extreme) ture anomalies for the summer of 1816 for the North by January 1817. The gradient of anomalies suggests and central Atlantic and adjacent land areas. The larg- a pattern associated with above-normal rainfall in est negative anomalies appear in the tropical South the Sahel region of Africa in this century and be- Atlantic, while anomalies in the Atlantic north of low-normal precipitation in the northeast region of about 10°N are generally less anomalously cool (as Brazil and the coastal areas of West Africa south of

FIG. 4. Surface air temperature anomalies (°C) for the northern and central Atlantic Ocean and adjacent land areas for the summer of 1816. Individual temperature anomaly values were calculated as departures from interpolated daily normals calculated for each specific location and grouped into 5° x 5° grid boxes. Isotherms were then drawn by hand. Normals are taken from Bottomley et al. (1990). Thirty-six of the 227 logbooks used in this study included surface air temperature data, and 9 of these also included sea surface temperature. Only air temperature data were used. A total of 857 observations were used, with most being east of 40°W.

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC the Sahel (Ward et al. 1993; Opoku-Ankomah and tive Atlantic hurricane season and the northward- Cordery 1994). displaced ITZ from Mexico to Africa (Fig. 5), along Daily weather maps3 produced by the author for the with the below-normal frequency of rain in the Gulf period 30 April through 2 October 1816 and cover- of Guinea and below-normal sea and air temperatures ing the entire North Atlantic basin and adjacent land off the coast of West Africa, provide indirect evidence areas indicate an active Atlantic hurricane season. The for above-normal rainfall in the Sahel in 1816. number of tropical storms and hurricanes appears to As for the northeast region of Brazil, the follow- have been at least 12 and quite likely 14. Logbooks ing newspaper account was found in a collection of and newspaper accounts indicate that 1815 was prob- newspaper clippings in the Luke Howard Collection ably just as vigorous a year. While no direct evidence in the National Meteorological Library in Bracknell, of conditions in the Sahel have been found, the ac- United Kingdom.

By an arrival at Liverpool we have received accounts from Pernambuco [modern Recife] of 3 The map series, which draws on all available land and marine the 8th of Feb. [1817], which state that a most data, is still being drawn up and is not yet in a publishable state. uncommon drought has been experienced in the Further queries on the series and other items in this paper can be tropical regions of the Brazils, or that part of addressed to the author. the country between Pernambuco and Rio

FIG. 5. Percentage of normal precipitation frequency for the North Atlantic Ocean for the summer of 1816. Isopleths of precipitation frequency are shown only for 60% (dashed), 100% (solid), and 140% (dotted) of normal values. Normals are derived from the U.S. Navy (1974). For land areas of North America and ship data on the Great Lakes, anomalies were based on the number of days with observed precipitation. Normals are taken from U.S. Commerce Department (1968). Excluding ships on inland waters of North America, there were 7537 observations used west of 45°W and 9437 observations east of 45°W. The observations were grouped (mainly) in 5° x 5° boxes. Totals per box ranged from 58 to 1146.

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC Janiero. By this circumstance all the streams 2) NORTHERN HEMISPHERE TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES had been dried up, the cattle were dying or In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter of 1815/16 dead, and all the population emigrating to the has already been mentioned as being colder than nor- borders of the great rivers in search of water. mal in much of east Asia. This implies a southward- The greatest distress prevailed, provisions were displaced Asian high, which would likely allow for wanting, and the mills completely at a stand. an active depression track along its northern edge over They have no windmills, so that no corn could Siberia. Temperatures may have been above contem- be ground. Vessels have been sent from Pernambuco to the United States to fetch flour, porary normals in parts of Siberia, with the normal and what had tended to increase this distress surface temperature inversion possibly less persistent was the interruption of the coasting trade than normal. In North America, conditions were more through the dread of war with Buenos Ayres. variable, with Edmonton (Alberta), Canada, having temperatures in January 1816 about 7°C above 1941— Here was yet another source of unanticipated demand 70 normals give way to a very cold February (anomaly being placed upon an agricultural products sector al- about -9°C) (Bird 1816). During the spring of 1816, ready unable to cope with rising demands brought on western North America was warm while the east was by the anomalous summer in the North Atlantic re- cold. In western Europe, a cold spring followed a cold gion (Post 1977). The description of the drought sug- winter in most areas (Briffa and Jones 1992). gests that the rainy season in 1816 failed and that by In the North Atlantic, anomalous atmospheric forc- 8 February 1817 no relief had come (the main rainy ing produced persistent above-normal air temperatures season is March-May). just northwest of the Azores from as early as March 1816 and continuing into at least September 1816 d. Extratropical temperature and precipitation (Fig. 4). Monthly mean air temperature anomalies in anomalies this area approached+2°C throughout the summer. At 1) SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE (SH) TEMPERATURE the same time, colder-than-normal air temperatures af- ANOMALIES fected most other midlatitude areas except probably In the Southern Hemisphere, most data are from the areas southwest of the Azores and east of north of about 40°S except in the South American Bermuda. The more limited sea surface temperature sector. The vast majority of temperature data from this data are consistent with the air temperature anoma- area are for air temperatures. Sample sizes are gener- lies. Sea surface temperatures were below normal in ally too small, except off the coast of South Africa, most instances, with individual daily anomalies of up for statistically significant results, but the general pat- to -3.5°C observed southeast of the Azores in July terns are suggestive. In the SH autumn of 1816 most 1816. Gulf Stream temperatures matched or exceeded areas of the South Atlantic eastward into the Indian modern averages, but some extremely cold sea (and Ocean experienced temperature anomalies of +0.5°C air) temperatures (below the first percentile) were ob- to -0.5°C. The only exceptions to this pattern were served between Virginia and Bermuda in June 1816. along the South African coast (up to -1 °C) and south The cold pools were probably generated by unusually of 35°S in the 75°E sector (-1.5°C or more). During frequent north and northeast winds during the winter the SH winter of 1816, air temperatures were near or and spring of 1816. below average west of 5°W but eastward from 5°W were 0°-l°C above average, with the notable excep- 3) NORTHERN HEMISPHERE PRECIPITATION ANOMALIES tion of an area centered on about 40°S, 30°E where Widespread drought affected much of the North anomalies reached -1° to -1.5°C. American interior. Although winter (November through Above-average sea surface temperatures are asso- April) rainfall was near normal at Natchez, Mississippi ciated with enhanced cyclonicity (Mason 1995), and (Mississippi Department of Archives and History4), a number of severe storms affected the South African coast during the Southern Hemisphere winter of 1816. A violent 36-hour storm raged in the Cape Town area 4 The Natchez weather record kept by W. Dunbar and his son can on 29-30 July, with severe northerly winds (described be found in the William Dunbar Papers, Manuscript Collection No. Z 114, in the form of two unpublished volumes. The mailing as a "hurricane" by all ships encountering it) and hail address where they are available from is the Mississippi Depart- causing severe damage to shipping both along the coast ment of Archives and History, Archives and Library Division, and at sea (Trumbull Log Keeper 1816; Sturgis 1816). P.O. Box 571, Jackson, MS 39205-0571.

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC the Mississippi River at New Orleans, Louisiana, was Daily weather maps indicate that the Azores high reported to have reached its maximum flow one was frequently displaced northward in the summer month earlier than normal and at a lower maximum of 1816, at times linking to the northeast with high height than known up to that time [American Beacon pressure over Scandinavia and at other times protrud- 1816a]. Similar accounts of drought and/or near- ing north toward the Greenland/Iceland sector. record low water levels were related from Labrador Another area of high pressure persisted in the south- and New Brunswick to Jamaica, and from Louisiana central United States. Meanwhile, an equally persis- to central Canada. Even Sitka, Alaska, which nor- tent area of low pressure produced an abnormally wet mally has measurable rain on 16 days in June, went summer in southwest Greenland, and a trough extend- without rain for over one week in June 1816 (Rogers ing south into the western Atlantic produced wet 1816). conditions off the drought-plagued American east Winter precipitation was above normal in Quebec coast. In Europe, the summer was famously cold and and Labrador where heavy snows fell early (Niles' wet in central regions (Post 1977); in addition, ship Weekly Register 1815)5 and remained late [American reports in the Mediterranean indicate numerous epi- Beacon 1816b], while parts of the Canadian Maritimes sodes of cyclogenesis and cold air advection during and northern New England experienced subnormal the summer, with unusually frequent rains in the snowfall amounts. The only other evidence of large- western Mediterranean (350% of normal frequency) scale surplus precipitation in North America in 1816 (Fig. 5). Meanwhile, the summer was fairly quiet is given by Cleaveland (1992). He reports that the and drier than normal (about 80% of normal precipi- summer of 1816 in southwestern Colorado featured tation frequency) in the waters west of Spitsbergen the greatest growth in Douglas fir trees in a long tree- in the late spring and summer. Scoresby (1816) noted ring series. Reduced moisture stress in the form of in his log entry of 30 May 1816, "The amazing long above-normal precipitation and/or below-normal tem- continuance of southerly winds at this season, to- peratures is implicated. gether with the prevalence of mild weather and con- Very dry weather in the south-central and south- stant thick fogs, is a circumstance uncommonly eastern United States indicate a strong ridge of high rare. . . ." pressure dominating this area (Chenoweth 1985). An anomalous ridge would favor a trough upstream e. Arctic sea ice conditions (west) of this area over the southwestern United In the Spitsbergen region, Scoresby (1820) reported States. Evidence for such a configuration can be found a near-normal sea ice year. Ship positions indicate the in the logbook of the ship Zephyr, anchored on the east sea ice was not far from twentieth century normals in coast of Guadelupe Island, Mexico (29°00'N, the region. This suggests that sea ice conditions in this 118°16'W), in the summer of 1816 (Davis 1816). region were little different than in the midtwentieth Unusual southeastern winds and increased surf from century. Elsewhere, more severe conditions prevailed. probably that direction on 29 June to 3 July indicate In southwest Greenland, Moravian records indicate a possible tropical cyclone approaching and decaying that the persistent southerly winds produced heavy over the area. The added moisture from recurving shore ice (Table 4). The record sea ice years in Hudson tropical cyclones would have the potential to spread Bay, Hudson Strait, and the north coast of Labrador very heavy rains into the southwestern United States. are already well documented (Catchpole and Faurer This moisture may have spread as far east as the Ohio 1983; Catchpole and Halpin 1987; Catchpole and Valley at times (Fig. 5). Hanuta 1989; Newell 1983). In the North Atlantic shipping lanes off Newfoundland, the ice season appears to have been more severe than normal, with

5 See also the Archivder Brueder Unitat, which holds the mission extensive chains of ice impeding shipping from April station journals of the Moravian missionaries serving in to late June and again from mid-August to early Greenland and Labrador. Mission stations active in 1815-16 in- September. Ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was ab- cluded Hoffenthal (Hopedale), Nain, and Okak in Labrador; and normally thick and long persisting. Numerous mer- Lichtenfels, Lichtenau, and Neu Herrnhut in Greenland. These chant ships were trapped at the entrance of the Gulf unpublished documents are written in old style German script. near Cape Ray in late April and early May 1816, and Manuscript reference numbers for individual journals can be found in Table 4, and the mailing address where they are avail- one ship was sunk by the ice (Waterhouse 1816). able from is Unitatsarchiv, PF 21, D-02745 Herrnhut, Germany. Heavy ice was reported on the Great Lakes and was

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC TABLE 4. Ice conditions and ice breakup dates at various locations in eastern North America during the year 1816. The archive reference number of the translated Moravian mission stations' extracts is given after each extract.

Location Date of ice breakup or ice conditions

1. Lake Erie, probably Buffalo area. 17 May. Final clearance of (probable shore) ice. In the winter ice thick enough to support heaviest loaded sleighs.

2. Port Collier, Drummond Island, Lake Huron. 4 May. Northwest wind cleared the harbor of ice.

3. Nottawasaga Bay, Georgian Bay, Canada. 7-23 May. Ice impeded passage into bay. 24 May. Ice drifting out of harbor very fast allowing entry into bay.

4. Gammon's Cove, Nova Scotia (southwest of Canso). 18 May. Ship surrounded briefly by river ice entering the cove.

5. Cabot Strait Late April. Merchant ships trapped in extensive ice floes between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. At least one ship foundered in the ice.

6. Labrador, about 53°N, 56°W. 6 July. Ice islands in sight (apparently the southernmost position of ice along the immediate coast in south Labrador in summer 1816).

7. Hoffenthal (Hopedale), Labrador. Summary written in late June: "On the 19th (June) we had a Moravian mission account. violent snowstorm which once again covered with snow our garden which had already been planted. Ice remained for an unusually long time on the water around us." R 15 Kb 2c

8. Nain, Labrador. Moravian mission account. "[IJn the last few days of this month (June) the air was a little milder and the ice on the lake, which was still quite white, appeared to be giving way here and there." R 15 Kb 4c

9. Okak, Labrador. Moravian mission account. 1 July. "On the first some people came from another area in their kayaks which they had to drag for part of the way across the ice as this ice still lay solidly in their area." R 15 Kb 5c

10. Lichtenfels, Greenland. Moravian mission account. 26 July. 'They looked from the outermost island and saw that the pack-ice was quite closely pushed together, and the ship was lying behind it quite far in the open sea. So for the time being they could not dare to work [her] through the ice. 15 Jb III. 11

late in breaking up (Niles' Weekly Register 1816). Ice 4. Northern Hemisphere winter conditions and breakup dates for 10 locations in North temperature anomalies: GCM results America are given in Table 4. compared to 1816 observations In the North Pacific, sea surface temperatures given by von Kotzebue (1821) indicate that the waters of A general circulation model simulation of surface the Bering Sea were colder than normal, and the ice temperature anomalies in the first boreal winter after edge probably was located not too far north of the east a major tropical volcanic eruption was run by Graf tip of the Chukotski Peninsula in late August 1816, et al. (1993). They found a temperature anomaly field about four degrees of latitude south of the modern that indicated significant cooling over Greenland, normal. Air temperatures in late July/early August North Africa, and parts of south Asia. Evidence of were around 1 °C above normal in the northern por- warming over northwestern North America and north- tion of the Bering Sea, but 1 °C below normal in the ern Eurasia was found not to be statistically signifi- south during late August. cant due to the large natural variability of temperature

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC in these areas. The general spatial pattern holds, after parison may soon be possible, as early nineteenth controlling for tropical Pacific teleconnections, in century data for Madrid becomes available in 1996 North America (Robock and Mao 1995). (M. Barriendos 1995, personal communication). Figure 6a shows the GCM-derived 2-m tempera- In Asia, the coldest anomalies in 1816 relative to ture anomalies as in Fig. 9 of Graf et al. (1993). the contemporary climate were probably in southernmost Figure 6b shows the surface temperature anomalies China (south of 30°N), where extraordinary anomalies observed December 1815-February 1816, relative to of snowfall and freeze damage to crops occurred the 1810-19 reference period. There is no December (Zhang et al. 1992), although below-normal tempera- 1815 data for Godthaab (Nuuk), Greenland. Other tures prevailed throughout the Far East and India. maps for each individual month from December 1815 Cooling at Madras (Fig. 2) is much greater than in the to March 1816 and various combinations of two to GCM. The probable area of maximum cooling in four months in length were also prepared. For any 1815-16 was either south of the GCM maximum cool- two-month period there are only small quantitative ing near 40°N, 120°E or the areal extent of the cool- differences at any particular location (at most plus or ing was greater than in the GCM run. West of India minus 1 °C), and the signs of the temperature anomaly and across northern Africa there are no contemporary field are not significantly altered. Caution is also re- data to compare against GCM results, although the quired because of temporal gaps in the 1810-19 pe- Spanish data may be considered to support the simu- riod at some stations. In the United States and lated cooling in Spain and adjacent northwest Africa. southeastern Canada it was possible to compare over- lapping records in order to calculate an 1810-19 reference average for stations with missing data. Where 5. Summary this was not possible, shorter period averages using data from other years (e.g., 1814-21, etc.) were cal- The state of the global climate system in and around culated and mapped. Comparisons of these maps to the year 1816 can be now described more fully than stations with complete records indicate that the over- ever before. The available evidence based on a pre- all spatial pattern of Fig. 6b is reliable. liminary interpretation of newly collected marine and The post-Tambora winter of 1815/16 temperature land data indicates that the global tropical circulation anomalies over Greenland do not fit with the GCM from late 1815 to about the middle of 1816 was domi- results. Temperatures were 5.5°C above the average nated by a cold-phase SO (La Nina) event, which was during 1810-19 at Godthaab, whereas GCM results preceded by an El Nino in 1814-15 and followed by indicate anomalies of as much as 4°C below the con- a subsequent El Nino in early 1817. Monsoon rain- trol runs. The latitudinal differences in maximum falls in 1816 appear to have been generally near or above cooling over the North American continent, which normal in India, and were most likely above normal in was near 50°N, 90°W in 1816, may be related to the the Sahel region. The intertropical zone from Mexico influence of the La Nina event occurring at this time. east to Africa was very active and displaced north- Otherwise, there is reasonably good agreement in the ward, but elsewhere in the Americas severe drought observed anomaly fields in North America. prevailed in many places from Brazil northward to In western Europe, GCM results show statistically central Canada. Most marine air and sea surface tem- significant differences only over the Iberian Penin- peratures were below 1951-80 averages, although sula (cooling of over 1°C). The winter of 1815/16 there was anomalous warmth in part of the North was 0°-l°C below the 1810-19 average in Europe Atlantic in the spring and summer of 1816 and in most (Briffa and Jones 1992). Newly discovered data for areas south of South Africa during June-August 1816. Barcelona, Spain (M. Barriendos 1995, personal com- The eruption of Tambora occurred during, and no munication), shows that the winter of 1815/16 was doubt contributed to, the cold decade of 1810-19 in 0.5°C below the 1810-19 average, and at Cadiz, much of the world. Given the recent spate of El Nino Spain (Wheeler 1995), it was 0.3°C below the 1810- events contributing to the anomalous warmth of 1982— 19 average (calculated after comparing its overlap- 94, the relative absence of El Nino events at the be- ping record, 1805-16, to Barcelona's data). These ginning of the nineteenth century may also be viewed values are compatible with the model results, but as as a contributing factor to the colder background cli- they are coastal locations, they are not in the (inland) mate of that era. Indeed, most compilations indicate area of statistically significant cooling. A further com- only one significant El Nino event (1803-04) from

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2025

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC FIG. 6. (a) Temperature anomalies of 2 m in the first boreal winter after a major tropical volcanic eruption as determined by the ECHAM2 general circulation model run in a perpetual January model from Fig. 9 of Graf et al. (1993). Light (dark) shading indicates negative (positive) temperature anomalies at 0.5-K intervals (the 0-K contour is not included), (b) Surface temperature anomalies for North America and for Europe for December 1815-February 1816. The European portion is derived from Briffa and Jones (1992) and redrawn by the author after new Spanish data was examined. The reference period used for determining temperature anomalies is 1810-19. Dashed lines indicate above-average temperatures. See text for further details.

1792 to 1815, and a pressure record at Madras, India, puter simulations of modern (Pinatubo in 1991) and dating back to 1796 (not shown) appears to buttress historical (Tambora in 1815) volcanic eruptions these assessments. Additionally, several important should provide further guidance in the interpretation volcanic eruptions between 1809 and 1814 may have of the effect of volcanic eruptions on the global cli- contributed to cooling the earth in the years immedi- mate. In at least eastern North America, both volca- ately prior to Tambora's eruption. nic eruptions were followed by an abnormally cool Tambora appears to be the only major tropical vol- summer in the year after the eruption, but in Europe cano to erupt at the onset of a cold-phase SO event the cold of 1816 was not repeated in 1992. Given the in the last 200 years (although the conditions prevail- markedly different background states of the global ing when Coseguina erupted in January 1835 are not climate system in which Tambora and Pinatubo known). The observed pattern of temperature anoma- erupted, the similarities and differences in regional lies in the winter of 1815/16 probably reflects the climate response will be illuminating. concurrent La Nina event and may obscure volcano- related warming over the United States (Robock and Acknowledgments. My thanks extend to many people, includ- Mao 1995; Bunkers et al. 1996; Portman and Gutzler ing H.-F. Graf, Max-Planck-Institut fur Meteorologie, Hamburg, 1996). The strong warming over southwest Greenland Germany, and Alan Robock, Department of Meteorology, Uni- further invites caution regarding the significance of versity of Maryland, College Park, for providing Fig. 6a; high latitude patterns of temperature anomaly fields Pavl Frich and Knut Frydendahl of the Danish Meteorological due to the signal-to-noise ratios in these regions of Institute, Copenhagen, for providing me with weather data for Godthaab, Greenland, as well as Danish logbook, lighthouse, and high temperature variability. land-based records; Capt. S. Sandvold, director, Royal Norwe- The comparison of observed global climatic effects gian Naval Museum, Horten, Norway, who provided valuable of volcanoes (McCormick et al. 1995) to future com- data for north Norway; Raymond Bradley, University of Mas-

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC sachusetts, Amherst, for comments on an earlier draft of this ar- of Princeton, New Jersey. Finally, my great indebtedness to ticle; Maurice Crewe and the staff of the National Meteorologi- Sjofn Kristjansdottir, Reykjavik, Iceland, for translating the cal Library, Bracknell, United Kingdom, for their unflagging weather journal of Sveinn Palson; John Kington, Climatic Re- assistance in locating historical material in their collection; search Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United King- D. E. Parker of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and dom, for his help and suggestions on some European data Research, Bracknell, for making the marine climatology data and sources; Cynthia Wilson, Gillingham, United Kingdom, for mak- other very useful references available to me; I. Balhauf of the ing many of her published results available to me; C. Jones, Archiv der Brueder Unitat, Herrnhut, Germany, for providing National Weather Service Office, Mount Holly, New Jersey, for copies of the original Moravian mission accounts in Labrador assisting me in copying logbook data; Roy T. Matsuda, National and Greenland; M. Higgins of Cheltenham, England, and Weather Service Forecast Office, Honolulu, Hawaii, for his com- Alan Macpherson, Memorial University of Newfoundland, ments and interpretation of Hawaiian weather conditions in St. John's, Canada, for assistance with the translation of the 1816; the three reviewers for their helpful comments and sug- Moravian records; Christian Pfister, Historisches Institut, Bern, gestions, and all the staffs of the various archives and historical Switzerland, for Swiss data and the names of other researchers societies listed in Tables 1 and 2. who provided information for Europe—in particular, Mariano Barriendos, Barcelona, Spain; Anders Moberg, Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm, Sweden; Raino Heino, Finn- ish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland; Riidiger Glaser, References Geographisches Institut der Universitat Wurzburg, Germany; Aryan van Engelen, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, American Beacon (Norfolk, VA), 1816a: 18 July, p. 3, M. misc. De Bilt, the Netherlands; Rudolf Brazdil, Masarykova 334. [Available from the British Library, Newspaper Library, Universita, Brno, Czech Republic; and Erik Wishman, Stavanger 120 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HE, United King- Archaeological Museum, Stavanger, Norway. For North Ameri- dom.] can data I must acknowledge the assistance and generosity of , 1816b: 8 May, p. 3, M. misc. 334. [Available from the Brit- Joe Elms, Richard Heim, and Pete Steruer of the National Cli- ish Library, Newspaper Library, 120 Colindale Avenue, Lon- matic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina, and David Ludlam don NW9 5HE, United Kingdom.]

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2025

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC Bird, J., 1816: Meteorological journal kept at Edmonton House, Eguiguren, V., 1894: Las Iluvias en Pura. Bol. Soc. Geogr. Lima, 1815-16. Manuscript Collection B. 60/a/16. Hudson's Bay 4, 241-248. Company Archives, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 45 pp. Forbes, C., 1816: Logbook of the ship Indus. Log 18151. Peabody [Available from Hudson's Bay Company Archives, 200 Essex Museum Library, Salem, MA, 178 pp. [Available from Vaughan Street, Winnipeg, MB R3C 1T5, Canada.] the Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square, Salem, MA Bombay Courier, 1816a: 3 August, p. 3, M.C. 1112. [Available 01970-3783.] from the British Library, Newspaper Library, 120 Colindale Graf, H.-F., I. Kichner, A. Robock, and I. Schult, 1993: Pinatubo Avenue, London NW9 5HE, United Kingdom.] eruption winter climate effects: Model versus observations. , 1816b: 17 August, p. 3, M.C. 1112. [Available from the Climate Dyn., 9, 81-93. British Library, Newspaper Library, 120 Colindale Avenue, Gray, W. H., 1984: Atlantic seasonal hurricane frequency. Part London NW9 5HE, United Kingdom.] I: El Nino and 30 mb Quasi-Biennial Oscillation influences. , 1816c: 31 August, p. 3, M.C. 1112. [Available from the Mon. Wea. Rev., 112, 1649-1668. British Library, Newspaper Library, 120 Colindale Avenue, Hamilton, K., 1986: Early Canadian weather observers and the "Year London NW9 5HE, United Kingdom.] Without a Summer." Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 67, 524-532. , 1816d: 7 September, p. 4, M.C. 1112. [Available from the , and R. R. Garcia, 1986: El Nino/Southern Oscillation events British Library, Newspaper Library, 120 Colindale Avenue, and their associated midlatitude teleconnections 1531-1841. London NW9 5HE, United Kingdom.] Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 67, 1354-1361. , 1816e: 21 September, p. 2, M.C. 1112. [Available from the Harington, C. R., Ed., 1992: The Year Without a Summer? World British Library, Newspaper Library, 120 Colindale Avenue, Climate in 1816. Canadian Museum of Nature, 576 pp. London NW9 5HE, United Kingdom.] Hill, S., 1816: Logbook of the ship Ophelia. Samuel Hill Collec- Briffa, K. R., and P. D. Jones, 1992: The climate of Europe dur- tion, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public ing the 1810s with special reference to 1816. The Year With- Library, New York City, NY, 160 pp. out a Summer? World Climate in 1816, C. R. Harington, Ed., Hoyt, J. B., 1958: The cold summer of 1816. Ann. Assoc. Amer. Canadian Museum of Nature, 372-391. Geograph., 48, 118-131. Bottomley, M., C. K. Folland, J. Hsuing, R. E. Newell, and Jameson, J., 1820. Report on the Epidemick Cholera Morbus, as D. E. Parker, 1990: Global Ocean Surface Temperature At- It Visited the Territories Subject to the Presidency of Bengal las. Meteorological Office and Massachusetts Institute of in the Years 1817,1818 and 1819. Government Gazette Press, Technology, 20 pp. + 313 plates. 325 pp. [Available from the British Library, Oriental and In- Bunkers, M. J., J. R. Miller, and A. T. DeGaetano, 1996: An dia Office Collections, 197 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 examination of El Nino-La Nina-related precipitation and 8NG, United Kingdom.] temperature anomalies across the Northern Plains. J. Climate, Ludlam, D. M., 1966: Early American Winters, 1604-1820. 9, 147-160. American Meteorological Society, 285 pp. Catchpole, A. J. W., and M. A. Faurer, 1983: Summer sea-ice sever- Mason, S. J., 1995: Sea-surface temperature-South African rain- ity in Hudson Strait, 1751-1870. Climatic Change, 5,115-139. fall associations, 1910-1989. Int. J. Climatol., 15, 119-135. , and J. Halpin, 1987: Measuring summer sea-ice severity McCormick, M. P., L. W. Thomason, and C. R. Trepte, 1995: At- in eastern Hudson Bay 1751-1870. Canad. Geographer, 31, mospheric effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption. Nature, 233-244. 373, 399-404. , and I. Hanuta, 1989: Severe summer ice in Hudson Strait Mikami, T., and Y. Tsukamura, 1992: The climate of Japan in and Hudson Bay following major volcanic eruptions, 1751 to 1816 as compared with an extremely cool summer climate in 1889 A.D. Climatic Change, 14, 61-79. 1783. The Year Without a Summer? World Climate in 1816, Charleston (SC) Courier, 1816: 27 May, p. 2. [Available in the C. R. Harington, Ed., Canadian Museum of Nature, 462-476. newspaper collection of the Library of Congress, Washing- Milham, W., 1924: The Year 1816—The cause of abnormalities. ton, DC 20540-4780.] Mon. Wea. Rev., 52, 563-570. Chenoweth, M., 1985: The summer of 1816 in North America. Newell, J. P., 1983: Preliminary analysis of sea-ice conditions in Weather, 41, 140-142. the Labrador Sea during the nineteenth century. Climatic Chu, P.-S., 1995: Hawaii rainfall anomalies and El Nino. J. Cli- Change in Canada 3, C. R. Harington, Ed., Syllogeus Series, mate, 8, 1697-1703. Vol. 49, Canadian Museum of Nature, 108-129. Cleaveland, M., 1992: Volcanic effects on Colorado plateau Dou- Nicholls, N., 1988: More on early ENSOs: Evidence from Austra- glas-fir tree rings. The Year Without a Summer? World Cli- lian documentary sources. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 69,4-6. mate in 1816, C. R. Harington, Ed., Canadian Museum of Niles' Weekly Register, 1815:16 December, p. 1280, IX, Whole Nature, 115-123. No. 224, No. 16. Coffin, J., 1816: Logbook of the ship Barclay. IMA Log 875, In- , 1816: 10 August, p. 385, X, Whole No. 258, No. 24. ternational Marine Archives Collection, Old Dartmouth Histori- Opoku-Ankomah, Y., and I. Cordery, 1994: Atlantic sea surface cal Society Whaling Museum Library, New Bedford, MA, 155 temperatures and rainfall variability in Ghana. J. Climate, 7, pp. [Available from the Old Dartmouth Historical Society Whal- 551-558. ing Museum, 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740.] Pendergrass, J., 1815: Logbook of the ship Hope. Series L/MAR/ Davis, C., 1816: Logbook of the ship Zephyr. Log 839, G. W. Blunt B/168M. British Library Oriental and India Office Collection, White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT, 218 pp. London, United Kingdom. [Available from the British Library, [Available from Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT 06355- Oriental and India Office Collections, 197 Blackfriars Road, 0990.] London, SE1 8NG, United Kingdom.]

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 01:32 PM UTC Phillimore, R. H., Compiler, 1954: Historical Records of the Sur- U.S. Navy, 1974: Marine Climatic Atlas of the World. Vol I vey of India 1815 to 1830. Vol. 3, Office of the Geodetic Sur- (Rev.): North Atlantic Ocean. NAVAIR 50-IC-528, U.S. Gov- vey of India, 534 pp. + 23 plates. [Available from the British ernment Printing Office, Washington, DC, 371 pp. Library, Oriental and India Office Collections, 197 Blackfriars , 1979: Marine Climatic Atlas of the World. Vol. V, South Road, London, SE1 8NG, United Kingdom.] Pacific Ocean, NAVAIR 50-IC-532, U.S. Government Print- Portman, D. A., and D. S. Gutzler, 1996: Explosive volcanic erup- ing Office, 350 pp. tions, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, and U.S. climate vari- von Kotzebue, O., 1821a: A Voyage of Discovery into the South ability. J. Climate, 9, 17-33. Sea and Beering's Straits. Vol. 1, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Post, J. D., 1977: The Last Great Subsistence Crisis in the West- Orme, and Brown, 358 pp. + 4 plates + 2 maps. [Available ern World. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 240 pp. from the National Meteorological Library, London Road, Quinn, W. H., D. O. Zorf, K. S. Short, and R. T. W. K. Yang, 1978: Bracknell RG12 2SY, United Kingdom.] Historical trends and statistics of the Southern Oscillation, , 1821b: A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and El Nino, and Indonesian droughts. Fish. Bull., 76, 663-678. Beering's Straits. Vol. 3, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Robock, A., and J. Mao, 1995: The volcanic signal in surface tem- Brown, 442 pp. + 2 plates + 2 maps. [Available from the Na- perature observations. J. Climate, 8, 1086-1095. tional Meteorological Library, London Road, Bracknell RG12 Rogers, Z., Jr., 1816: Logbook of the brig Columbia. Manuscript 2SY, United Kingdom.] Collection No. 149, Special Collections and Archives Divi- Ward, M. N., C. K. Folland, K. Maskell, A. W. Colman, sion, Chester W. Nimitz Library, United States Naval Acad- D. P. Rowell, and K. B. Lane, 1993: Experimental seasonal emy, Annapolis, MD, 73 pp. forecasting of tropical rainfall at the UK Meteorological Of- Scoresby, W., 1816: Logbook of the ship Esk. IMA Log 1971B, fice. Prediction of Interannual climatic variations, J. Shukla, International Marine Archives Collection, Old Dartmouth His- Ed., NATO ASI Series, Vol. I 6, Springer-Verlag, 197-216. torical Society Whaling Museum Library, New Bedford, MA, Waterhouse, H., 1816. Letter to the editor, (Middlebury, VT) Na- 96 pp. [Available from the Old Dartmouth Historical Society tional Standard, 3 July, p. 3. [Available in the newspaper col- Whaling Museum, 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA lection of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540- 02740.] 4780.] , 1820: An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a Descrip- Wheeler, D., 1995: Early instrumental weather data from Cadiz: tion of the Northern Whale Fishery. Vol. 1, Archibald Con- A study of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century records. stable and Co., 633 pp. + 24 engravings. [Available from the Int. J. Climatol., 15, 801-810. National Meteorological Library, London Road, Bracknell, Wilson, C., 1985a: The Little Ice Age on eastern Hudson/James RG12 2SY, United Kingdom.] Bay: The summer weather and climate at Great Whale, Fort Stommel, H., and E. Stommel, 1983: Volcano Weather, the Story George and Eastmain, 1814-1821, as derived from Hudson's of the Year Without a Summer. Seven Seas Press, 177 pp. Bay Company records. Climatic Change in Canada 5, Sturgis, W., 1816: Logbook of the ship Isabella. William Sturgis C. R. Harington, Ed., Syllogeus Series, Vol. 55, Canadian Mu- Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA. [Avail- seum of Nature, 147-190. able from the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston , 1985b: Daily weather maps for Canada, summers 1816— Street, Boston, MA 02215.] 1818—A pilot study. Climatic Change in Canada 5, Trumbull Log Keeper, 1816: Logbook of the ship Trumbull. Log C. R. Harington, Ed., Syllogeus Series, Vol. 55, Canadian Mu- 527, G. W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum, seum of Nature, 191-218. Mystic, CT, 151 pp. [Available from Mystic Seaport Museum, Zhang, P.-Y., Wang, W.-C., and S. Hameed, 1992: Evidence for Mystic, CT 06355-0990.] anomalous cold weather in China, 1815-1817. The Year With- U.S. Commerce Department, 1968: Climatic Atlas of the United out a Summer? World Climate in 1816, C. R. Harington, Ed., States. U.S. Government Printing Office, 80 pp. Canadian Museum of Nature, 436-447.

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Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2025

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METEOROLOGY, 1919-1995 The Diamond Anniversary History Volume of the American Meteorological Society

Edited by James Rodger Fleming Foreword by Warren M. Washington

As part of its 75th Anniversary, the American Meteorological Society initiated a history book— a collection of 20 essays that chronicle achievements in the field of meteorology in many specialized areas, including basic and applied research, the private sector, and education. These essays celebrate a period of disciplinary formation and remarkable growth in the field of meteorology, and an era of expanding theoretical, observational, and institutional horizons. They constitute a sampling of what has been learned, where we stand, and where we might be going—in research, in education, and in the private sector. This is a book of meteorological discovery and innovation, designed to value the past in order to inspire the future.

©1996 American Meteorological Society. Hardcover, B&W, 618 pp., $60 list/$25 member (including shipping and handling). Please send prepaid orders to: Order Department, American Meteorological Society, 45 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108-3693.

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