Unseasonable freezes and snowfalls damaged or destroyed many crops in the agrarian northeastern U.S. and adjacent portions of Canada in 1816. More than 90% of the corn crop, the prime food staple, was lost, and serious damage was done to garden vegetables. Hardier grains like wheat and rye, however, were not as badly affected. While accounts give the impression that unusually cold weather persisted throughout the entire summer and affected the entire world, such was not the case.

Unusually cold episodes interrupted longer spells of seasonably warm weather. In 1816, June and July mean temperatures were 1.6–3.3°C (3–6°F) below average. Individually, these monthly temperature anomalies fall within the expected range of climate variability. Some previous and subsequent summer months have been as cold as those, though, if not colder. What is most notable about the weather of the summer of 1816 is the persistence of a strong negative temperature anomaly through all three summer months. Some argue this was a migratory “push” factor for people in New England to travel west and settle other Midwestern regions of the U.S. in search of better environmental conditions for agriculture.

Western Europe was not immune either; it was a terrible agricultural crisis for many countries in that continent as well. Famine existed in Ireland and food prices in Germany sky-rocketed. Riots in the United Kingdom and France took place at food storehouses as people clamored for grains. Climate scientists continue to unravel the causal mechanisms of this seasonal anomaly. Strong evidence suggests a combination of low solar activity and a series of major volcanic eruptions, concluding with the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, in Indonesia, which was likely the most explosive volcanic event in over 1000 years, were the culprits.

For more information about this climatic anomaly and its probable connection to Frankenstein, visit spark.ucar.edu/shortcontent/mount-tambora-and-year-without-summer.

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