Year Without Summer?

You know what they say, "Don't scoff at the weather. Without it, most people wouldn't know how to start a conversation -- or a blog."

Okay, so I mentioned yesterday that I was finally going to get to some "a round tuit" projects.  What I didn't count on was:  SNOW!

Yes, yesterday broke all kinds of records for coldest high temperatures, lowest low temps, snow so late in the year, etc.  At least in my lifetime which spans five decades and more than a few years.

Strange.

But, have you ever heard about the year without summer?  The year was "18-hundred-and-froze-to-death."  1816.  For months,  even in the summer, much of the northeastern United States, Canada, and Europe experienced excessive rain, frost, and even snowfall. As a result, record people in unprecedented numbers started migrating south to warmer climates, crops would not grow so there were massive food shortages resulting in riots.  In the days before the "fair and balanced" news reporting that we have today, people must have believed that the sun was dying and that this event foretold of the end of the world. 

How is all that possible?  Just before sunset on April 5, 1815, a massive explosion shook the volcanic island of Sumbawa in the Indonesian archipelago.  For two hours, a stream of lava erupted from Mount Tambora, sending a plume of ash eighteen miles in the sky.  As a result, weather patterns were disrupted for months. 

Now you know some of the rest of the story. 

So, next time we have a day like yesterday, and people complain, you can reply, "Well, maybe it's another Mount Tambora and 2000-and froze-to-death!"  It would be a good way to start a conversation.

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn