42 days/ 1008 hours

Weather Geeks know the year 1816 as ‘The year without a summer’ which most likely was caused by the  eruption of Mount Tambora in Sumbawa, Indonesia  on April 10th 1815.  The resulting volcanic plume which spewed into the atmosphere would make the Mount St. Helen’s eruptions look like a squid ink squirt in comparison and its effect was felt worldwide for years.

If you are old enough to recall the Mount St. Helen’s eruption in 1980 one side effect for  photographers around the world was  the dramatic almost pastel colored sunsets the residual dust in the sky caused. This eruption also showed some affect on climate albeit only on a very regional scale not, the entire planet as Mount Tambora is fairly well determined  to have caused.

The 1816 volcano did indeed cause a year with out summer with average temperatures dropping five to ten degrees below normal.   This may not seem like a great deal of difference but the small drop had economic, progressive, cultural and agricultural consequences.  For example Discovery.com lists some of the following as directly attributable to the eruption and subsequent residual suspend particulates in the air:

• Famine in large parts of northern Europe


• Crop shortages due to shortened growing season worldwide


• Mary Shelly writing ‘Frankenstein’ due, in part, to the miserable weather while on summer retreat at Lord Byron’s estate.


• An increase in seeking out innovations to reduce reliance on draft animals to transport food and goods - in response to skyrocketing grain feed costs. (read steam and combustion engines)

It is almost as prophetic as the movie Americathon!

Setting aside the ‘debate’ as to if what we are experiencing is a natural earth weather cycle or something at least in part exacerbated by human production of CO2’s  it is pretty obvious that  the cycles in weather do seem to be more dramatic just in my lifetime.

This year could reasonably - at least from the mid-west to east coast of America- be deemed the ‘Year Without Winter’.   Last year with all the snow and wet, wet, wet spring my neighborhood had fewer cookouts and picnics over the summer as it was  one of the buggiest ever.  Nothing seemed to work short of bringing in tanker trucks full of DOW chemicals to saturate the area - plus after awhile the smell of insect repellent hanging in the air from night to morning does not really make a burger appetizing.  Any more summers like the last and we will become shut ins who only get to swim at indoor pools and BBQ at McDonalds.

Did Mary Shelly and John Polidori warn us of more than just mans attempt to be a god?   

Six Weeks more winter, or maybe not.