The Year Without A Summer

As Michael Crichton tells us, nobody really knows what would happen to the climate as the result of a nuclear war. The science behind "nuclear winters" is junk science.

But that’s not to say that large amounts of dust ejected into the atmosphere wouldn’t have an effect on climate. In fact, it’s happened before.

One time it did was 1816, also known as "the Year without a Summer" and "Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death."

It was caused by the erruption of the volcano Mt. Tambora in . . . Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies).

Summer temperatures were drastically lowered. Rain poured. Snow fell. Crops were destroyed. Food rioting began. People moved out of New England to settle the Upper Midwest. And a group of laudanum-laced British friends retired to a Swiss house where they told and later wrote down their stories, among them the horror classic Frankenstein.

All because it was the Year without a Summer.

LEARN THE CHILLING STORY.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

9 thoughts on “The Year Without A Summer”

  1. Ever since I took an undergraduate Planetary Atmospheres class, I’ve always wondered how scientists can get away with their prophesies.
    In that class I learned there was a “mini-ice age” in the 17th(?) century and that the atmosphere has been warming since. My professor put into perspective what humans have done compared to nature.
    So, today reading news stories about volcanoes spewing large amount of fun chemicals high into the atmosphere compared to perhaps 100 years of modern age of human pollution, I have to laugh.
    As a side note, this same professor showed us a chart of two different plots over time. When asked if they were correlated, the obvious answer was yes. When the professor revealed one plot was the number of sunspots and the other was a plot of the number of Replublicans in Congress, the class had to stop and think. For a brief moment at least.
    So was I duped in college? Perhaps, but at least is what has been going through my mind when this issue comes up. If anyone can correct me, please do.

  3. The explosion of Krakatoa in 1883 also had a considerable effect on the atmosphere. Last year I listened to CDs of Simon Winchester reading his “Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883”. He covers a wide range of science in describing this event. Hardly anyone was killed by the eruption itself, but “It caused a tidal wave 120 ft (36 m) high that took 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra.” (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, 2003, page 1028).

  4. Other than the obvious issues, I wouldn’t mind getting rid of summer. Instead of being a hot, sweaty fat guy, I would only be a fat guy.

  5. Atkins will take care of that. (Sure did for me!) Then you’d just be a guy. 🙂

  6. Rhapsody Playlist: Songs About Nuclear War

    Songs For A Nuclear Holocaust: The songs in this playlist are about nuclear destruction and/or the cold war. As you will discover, the majority were written at the height of the cold war. Namely, the 80s.

  7. Rhapsody Playlist: Yhe Best Songs of 2004

    There was so much great music released this year I hardly knew where to begin, but after much consideration and work I’m finished. This is a HUGE list that contains the absolute best of 2004. You’re sure to find something you missed.

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