Year Without a Summer
The year 1816 AD is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1 °F). Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any on record between 1766 and 2000, resulting in crop failures and major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.
| Year Without a Summer | |
|---|---|
1816 summer temperature anomaly compared with average temperatures from 1971 to 2000 | |
| Volcano | Mount Tambora |
| Start date | Eruption occurred on 10 April 1815 |
| Type | Ultra-Plinian |
| Location | Lesser Sunda Islands, Dutch East Indies (now Republic of Indonesia) |
| Impact | Caused a volcanic winter that dropped temperatures by 0.4–0.7°C (or 0.7–1°F) worldwide |
Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in April in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). This eruption was the largest in at least 1,300 years (after the hypothesized eruption causing the volcanic winter of 536); its effect on the climate may have been exacerbated by the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines.