Volcano Weather: The Story of 1816, the Year Without a Summer

By Henry M. Stommel and Henry Stommel

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0915160714
• ISBN13: 9780915160716
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Seven Seas Press
• Length: 177 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Volcano Weather

This is an excellent account of the effects of the Tambora Eruption of 1815. With just the right blend of science and anecdotal accounts the authors brilliantly explain how the eruption changed weather patterns for the next several years but especially the growing season of 1816. The authors take a global view of how the famines affected populations, not just North America.

HOW BAD WAS IT?

The year 1816 is known in the US for days of bitter cold in the Northeast that summer. Europeans suffered major crop failures only one year after the Napoleonic Wars. The author examines this year and how the eruption of a volcano the year before may have influenced the climate. The book uses a mixture of science and history to better understand what occured. This is one of the few works of its kind I have ever seen. While far from fascinating, it does shed light on a period only dimly understood, and is a must read for anyone greatly interested in climate change or historic volcanoes.

The Year Without a Summer

Volcano Weather, by Henry Stommel & Elizabeth Stommel Henry Stommel was a Professor of Oceanography at MIT and Harvard University. Elizabeth Stommel is a writer. In 1816 New England and Western Europe suffered a summer that was as cold as winter and a crop failure. This resulted in creating the Erie Canal by the state of New York, and started the use of steam engines for railways. This book estimates the probable links between the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 and the weather that followed. He can't be certain because "too little is known about these vastly complex physical and social phenomena to be sure about causes" (p.xix). Chapter 1 says the eruption of Mount Tambora sent more dust into the upper air to obscure sunlight than any other over the last 400 years. [No mention of the "Dark Ages" in the sixth century, a world-wide phenomena.] Tambora had 10 times more volume than Krakatoa in 1883, 100 times more volume than St. Helens in 1980. Krakatoa reduced direct sunlight by 15% to 20% (p.10). Science knows quite a lot about the cold summer of 1816 because of scientific observation at the time. June 6, 1816 saw unseasonable cold and snow! The map on pages 28-29 show the snow line started north of Albany NY and due east to the coast. A second cold wave came in early July (p.37). This killed off the corn (maize) used as a food staple for hundreds of years. The shortages of fodder meant animals had to be butchered for meat since they would not live over the winter. The fruit harvest was plentiful (p.41). Chapter 3 says an even more disastrous summer in Europe created famine (p.44). Disease followed. Northern New England had a subsistence economy; there were no roads for transfer of bulk commodities (p.55). Wolves threatened lone travelers (p.58). Pages 59-65 describe their living conditions. Chapter 5 tells of the importance of the corn crop. Noah Webster predicted an energy shortage (wood) and recommended more efficient iron stoves, narrower flues, better built houses (p.78). The crop failures of 1816 saw a spike in grain prices in 1817, but lower meat prices (p.81). Chapter 7 tells of other events of that time. John Stevens said that canals would be too slow (p.91). Chapter 8 tells of the westward migration that began after 1816. Stommel compares the population loss of Vermont to Oklahoma during the dust storms (pp.94-95). "Legends are part of collective folk history" (p.101). Chapter 9 has some of the stories about the cold summer. Chapter 10 tells of the cholera epidemics that began after 1816. Does anybody really know what causes climate change? Chapter 11 has suggested causes: sun spots, lightning rods, icebergs, dust high in the sky from volcanoes or meteorites. Climatologists use indirect indicators of temperature. The variations in temperature can differ between short-period variations and long-period variations (p.128). A computer model suggests that the temperature can vary over the centuries (pp.135-137). Will the volcano dust