Weather Whys; Year without Summer

This is weather-wise. The summer months of 1816 must have seemed like winter to many inhabitants of New England. Heavy snowfall in June and chilling cold in June and July distinguished what would come to be known as the year without a summer. It was a time of extreme frustration for farmers who were forced several times to replant their crops because of unexpected weather damage. The first volley from Mother Nature came in the form of a strong cold front. Daytime high temperatures in Massachusetts plunged from near 90 on June 5th to the low 40s the following day. Then on the 7th, a winter storm destroyed crops from New England down to the mid-Atlantic states and dropped 20 inches of snow and ice palettes on Danbury Vermont. Temperatures rebounded to nearly normal following that unusual event, but episodes of freezing cold occurred again in July and August. The strange weather which began that June may have had its roots in a geological event

that occurred more than a year before. In April of 1815, the massive eruption of a volcano in Indonesia sent tons of ash and smoke into the atmosphere. Scientists say such large quantities is that can cause dramatic cooling by blocking sunlight from huge areas of the earth. Although large quantities of ash and debris fall to earth following interruption, not all of it does, many ash particles remain suspended high in the atmosphere, producing an effect like that of a thin overcast, filtering out some of the sun's rays, and if less sunlight gets through, it's bound to be cooler. Weather wise is produced by KGOU radio at the University of Oklahoma in cooperation with the School of Meteorology and the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms. Our executive producer is Karen Hope. Our editor is Brian walking. For a weather wise, I'm Drew Barlow.