1 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, since the Year Without a Summer got a 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:08,400 Speaker 1: very brief mention in our roller Coaster episode, we were 3 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: bringing that out as Today's Saturday Classic. And this episode 4 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:15,760 Speaker 1: kicks off with us talking about author Mary robin At Kawal, 5 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:18,560 Speaker 1: who has actually been on the show since this episode 6 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,919 Speaker 1: came out. We interviewed her in twenty eighteen about her 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,599 Speaker 1: Lady Astronaut Duology. Tracy did that interview that is set 8 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: during an alternate version of the Space Race. So we 9 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: talked about things like how she avoided anachronisms and various 10 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: real world historical people and events that played a role 11 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:37,839 Speaker 1: in the books. So if folks are interested in hearing that, 12 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: it's a really great talk. It came out on August twentieth, 13 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:46,199 Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. This episode came out on January twelfth, twenty fifteen, 14 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:52,519 Speaker 1: So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, 15 00:00:52,760 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 16 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: I am Tracy and I'm Holly Frying. So perhaps you 17 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:11,279 Speaker 1: have heard of Mary Robinett Kalal. Maybe you're a listener 18 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: to this podcast. She has written, among other things, a 19 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: series of novels that are known as the glamorous histories, 20 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: and these are basically Jane Austen novels with magic. So 21 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:23,640 Speaker 1: if that sounds delightful to you and you have not 22 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: read them, you will probably be delighted because they are 23 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: pretty charming and touching and funny. And the third one 24 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: was some of my most recent airplane reading while I 25 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: was on a flight, and that book is called Without 26 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: a Summer. It's said in eighteen sixteen, and in addition 27 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:47,320 Speaker 1: to several running mentions of past podcast subjects the Luddites, 28 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: there's ongoing discussion about about whether that year's unseasonably cold 29 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: weather is caused by magic. Basically, so this is not 30 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: unseasonably cold like chillier than normal. It's unseasonably cold like 31 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: it's snowing in July and all of the crops have 32 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: frozen in the ground. So, in spite of the similarities 33 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 1: in their names, I was so absorbed in this book 34 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:14,799 Speaker 1: that it wasn't until the very end that I made 35 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 1: the connection that this unseasonably called fictional setting is the 36 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,440 Speaker 1: same as the real world event the year Without a Summer, 37 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: which is also a listener request from listener Cecile, so Cecil, 38 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: you can thank Mary Robinett Koal for bumping this to 39 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: the top of the list, because after we landed, I 40 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:37,600 Speaker 1: was like, I want to learn more about that and 41 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:42,640 Speaker 1: what really happened. So this story actually starts with the volcano. 42 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: And the volcano, which was Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, 43 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: was probably not the only factor in eighteen sixteenth bizarre weather, 44 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that a little bit more later, 45 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 1: but it was definitely a very significant major part of it, 46 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: and it had immediate devastating effect in Asia and the 47 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: tropical Pacific, and a lot of these are unfortunately really 48 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: glossed over when people talk about the year without a summer. 49 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: There were several major volcanic eruptions in the early eighteen teens. 50 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: One was Sufferrare on Saint Vincent Island in the Caribbean 51 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:21,200 Speaker 1: in eighteen twelve. Mount Mayon and the Philippines erupted in 52 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:25,079 Speaker 1: eighteen fourteen, and then there was an immense explosion from 53 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:28,359 Speaker 1: Tambora which started on April fifth, eighteen fifteen, and went 54 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: on for days, with the worst of the eruption really 55 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:35,760 Speaker 1: getting going on the tenth. And in the memoir of 56 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 1: Sir Stamford, Raffles, the British Lieutenant governor of Java at 57 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:42,560 Speaker 1: the time, quote, the first explosions were heard on this 58 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 1: island in the evening of the fifth of April. They 59 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:48,600 Speaker 1: were noticed in every quarter and continued at intervals until 60 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: the following day. The noise was in the first instance 61 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 1: almost universally attributed to distant cannon, so much so that 62 00:03:56,560 --> 00:03:59,119 Speaker 1: a detachment of troops who were marched from Joke Jakarta 63 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:02,560 Speaker 1: in the expectation that a neighboring post was attacked, and 64 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: along the coast boats were in two instances dispatched in 65 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:10,200 Speaker 1: quest of a supposed ship in distress. On the following morning, however, 66 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: a slight fall of ashes removed all doubt as to 67 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:15,200 Speaker 1: the cause of the sound, and he goes on to 68 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: say that it sounded so close that they really all 69 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: believed it was a volcano that was actually much closer 70 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: to them than Tambora. When the eruption started, eyewitnesses on 71 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: the island of Zimbawa reported three extremely tall, very distinct 72 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 1: columns of flame that came up from the volcano's crater, 73 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: and then they kind of crashed into one another high 74 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 1: up above it, before cascading back down stones that were 75 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:44,359 Speaker 1: on average the size of a walnut also rained down, 76 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:49,359 Speaker 1: along with tons and tons of ash. Also falling in 77 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: the vicinity of the mountain were trees and even animals 78 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: that had been on the upper slopes, which were torn 79 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:00,479 Speaker 1: apart by the eruption. The eruption of Tambora case you 80 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,919 Speaker 1: could not surmise this from Tracy's description, was huge. It 81 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: was much bigger and much deadlier than the far more 82 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,360 Speaker 1: well known eruption of Krakatoa that happened almost seventy years later. 83 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: People reported hearing it as far away as Sumatra, which 84 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:17,560 Speaker 1: is more than a thousand miles away from where it 85 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 1: was happening. There was also so much ash in the 86 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,839 Speaker 1: air that it was, according to reports, dark for three 87 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: days for three hundred miles around the volcano. After the 88 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:34,360 Speaker 1: eruption peaked, the volcano itself also got a lot shorter. 89 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: It lost almost a third of its pre eruption height, 90 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: dropping from four thousand, two hundred to two thousand, eight 91 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:47,320 Speaker 1: hundred meters. Not surprisingly, the island of Sumbawa was devastated. 92 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: More than ten thousand people died in the eruption itself. 93 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: The entire island was covered in ash, and this ash 94 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:59,280 Speaker 1: had an average depth of between fifty and sixty centimeters, 95 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:03,200 Speaker 1: so between twenty and thirty inches of ash. The ash 96 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:05,599 Speaker 1: was deeper the closer you got to the volcano, and 97 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,679 Speaker 1: so much of it fell that buildings collapsed under its weight, 98 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,600 Speaker 1: and a two thousand and four archaeological expedition found a 99 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,359 Speaker 1: village that was buried under an ash layer ten feet thick. 100 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 1: Ash spread to the north and northwest, blanketing the sea 101 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:26,599 Speaker 1: and the neighboring islands. British vessels reported patches of ash 102 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,800 Speaker 1: in the sea around Indonesia that was several feet deep 103 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:34,279 Speaker 1: and had to be essentially plowed through. Two of Simbawa's 104 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: prinstoms were completely destroyed and their common languages became extinct, 105 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:43,159 Speaker 1: and the influx of volcanic material into the ocean also 106 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:45,919 Speaker 1: spawned a tsunami that struck other parts of the island 107 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 1: as well as neighboring islands, so that people who had 108 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:52,920 Speaker 1: survived the initial eruption wound up being killed in the tsunami. Afterward, 109 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,039 Speaker 1: most of the crops in the surrounding area were destroyed, and, 110 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:00,840 Speaker 1: as is so often the case when such a massive 111 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 1: natural disaster, famine and disease spread and its wake, including 112 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 1: among livestock and wild animals. People became so hungry that 113 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,360 Speaker 1: they resorted to eating their horses, which were working animals 114 00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: that were necessary for transportation and for work. And all 115 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: of this wasn't limited just to the island of Simbawa. 116 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: People in neighboring islands starved to death as volcanic ash 117 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: killed their rice crops. There was a massive migration to 118 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: other islands, and some of those islands could not sustain 119 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: the needs of all of these newcomers that were causing 120 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: their economies and their food supplies to collapse. And many 121 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:40,560 Speaker 1: of those islands were facing famines and epidemics of their 122 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 1: own in the wake of the volcano. Bali and Lombach 123 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: were particularly hard hit. Estimates of the total death toll 124 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,920 Speaker 1: in Indonesia really vary, but sources generally agree that it 125 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:56,239 Speaker 1: was at least one hundred seventeen thousand people who died 126 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: in the eruption and its aftermath. It took more than 127 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,680 Speaker 1: five years before crops could be harvested again. On the 128 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: most affected parts of Sumbawa, recovery was extremely slow. Two 129 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: government officials wrote that the princetoms of Sumbawa and Dampo 130 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 1: were quote beginning to recover in eighteen twenty four, so 131 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: we're talking about almost a decade later. Other Prinstoms were, 132 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: in their words still quote a desolate heap of rubble. 133 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:27,680 Speaker 1: The whole thing had an extremely long lasting effect on 134 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:30,600 Speaker 1: the island's ecology. You could probably even say that it 135 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:34,960 Speaker 1: was permanently changed. And places ash made the ground were fertile, 136 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: but it was also drier. So Bali and lomboch So 137 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: neighboring islands wound up with really bountiful rice harvests a 138 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:44,840 Speaker 1: few years later thanks to all the ash and the soil. 139 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:48,600 Speaker 1: But on Sumbawa, the volcano and the ash destroyed all 140 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: the vegetation, and the streams and springs that the vegetation 141 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,920 Speaker 1: had been sheltering consequently dried up, so while the soil 142 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:00,319 Speaker 1: was richer, it was also a lot drier. Sumbawa didn't 143 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:02,720 Speaker 1: get quite the same benefit as some of the other 144 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:08,360 Speaker 1: outlying islands did once it had started to recover. The 145 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: dust from the ash spread around the world, caused brilliant sunsets, 146 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:15,320 Speaker 1: and it also reaked havoc with the weather over the 147 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,560 Speaker 1: following months. In the US, dust in the air was 148 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:22,480 Speaker 1: reported in the Washington, d c. Daily National Intelligencer on 149 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: May first of eighteen sixteen, and in the Norfolk, Virginia 150 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:29,640 Speaker 1: American Beacon on the ninth. The editor of the Boston 151 00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:32,840 Speaker 1: Columbia Sentinel remarked that the sun itself seemed dimmer on 152 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: July fifteenth, which he thought was because of sun spots, 153 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:38,760 Speaker 1: and while there was a lot of sunspot activity, it 154 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:40,880 Speaker 1: was almost certainly because of all of the ash in 155 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:45,800 Speaker 1: the atmosphere. So we are going to talk about exactly 156 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: what that ash caused in terms of the weather after 157 00:09:48,960 --> 00:10:01,600 Speaker 1: a brief word from a sponsor, so to return to Tambora. 158 00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: Before we talk about how this eruption affected the weather 159 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:07,359 Speaker 1: in parts of the world, we have a couple of caveats. 160 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,720 Speaker 1: One is that the measurement and record keeping related to 161 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:15,680 Speaker 1: weather statistics have really improved dramatically in the years since 162 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:18,199 Speaker 1: all of this happened. Most of the places that we're 163 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: talking about did not have any sort of methodical pattern 164 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 1: of observing the weather and writing it down, which is 165 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,280 Speaker 1: something we pretty much take for granted today. So that 166 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,360 Speaker 1: means a lot of the records that we have are 167 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:33,920 Speaker 1: erratic and subjective, but there is a ton of documentation 168 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: overall in the historical record, in the form of newspapers, letters, journals, diaries, 169 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:42,800 Speaker 1: and other documents. So there's so much of it that 170 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: we know just from that part that this was a 171 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:53,080 Speaker 1: real event and not just somebody overreacting about a cold snap. Also, 172 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,720 Speaker 1: we have a lot of documentation about eighteen sixteens weather 173 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: in North America and Europe and parts of Asia. But 174 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:03,520 Speaker 1: while it's pretty logical to conclude that the weather was 175 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:06,280 Speaker 1: completely weird everywhere as a consequence of all of this 176 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:10,200 Speaker 1: volcanic activity, we have much less in the way of 177 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 1: actual records from Africa, South America, and Australia. So when 178 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: we walk through what we know, it is mostly from 179 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:21,319 Speaker 1: North American, European and Asian points of view. In North America, 180 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,079 Speaker 1: particularly on the east coast, stretching from the Carolinas all 181 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:28,320 Speaker 1: the way up through what's now Ontario and Quebec, the 182 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,120 Speaker 1: spring of eighteen sixteen was overall cooler and drier than normal, 183 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:36,040 Speaker 1: although there were some big warm spells mixed in, Temperatures 184 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:39,559 Speaker 1: kind of swung wildly from balmy to freezing and back again. 185 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: Then the summer had three extreme cold spells in June, July, 186 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: and August the first huge cold wave stretch. From June 187 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:52,959 Speaker 1: fifth to June eleventh, Temperatures in New England dropped from 188 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,960 Speaker 1: the eighties to the forties in the wake of a thunderstorm, 189 00:11:56,280 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 1: and that actually became the high for the next several days. 190 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:03,280 Speaker 1: Eighteen inches of snow was reported in Cabot, Vermont, on 191 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,480 Speaker 1: the eighth, and a hard frost that stretched well into 192 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:09,280 Speaker 1: the south on the eleventh killed most of the crops 193 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:12,400 Speaker 1: that had managed to survive up until that point. People 194 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 1: started to talk about the real possibility of a famine. 195 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: Within weeks, New England temperatures were really unseasonably hot, again, 196 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:24,960 Speaker 1: breaking one hundred in parts of Massachusetts, which doesn't happen 197 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,920 Speaker 1: all that often, especially not this early in the season. 198 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,800 Speaker 1: Another four day cold snap hit eastern North America starting 199 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: on July sixth. In this case, frosts killed the replanted crops, 200 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 1: although it was not as snowy this time around. Most 201 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:41,199 Speaker 1: of the snow reported in the US was in the 202 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:44,840 Speaker 1: mountains of Vermont, but further north in Montreal, bodies of 203 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:48,200 Speaker 1: water completely froze over with a layer of ice. This 204 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:51,760 Speaker 1: snap also reached even farther south, causing cold weather and 205 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:55,319 Speaker 1: frosts in places that had escaped in the June wave. 206 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,959 Speaker 1: The cold weather came back again on August twenty first, 207 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:03,679 Speaker 1: causing more snow in the Vermont Mountains, along with frosts 208 00:13:03,679 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: as far south as North Carolina and as far west 209 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:11,559 Speaker 1: as Kentucky and Ohio. Just as alarming at this point 210 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:14,400 Speaker 1: was a drought which had affected much of the southern 211 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:17,720 Speaker 1: and eastern US, and it's estimated that up to half 212 00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:20,280 Speaker 1: of the cotton crop in the South failed because of 213 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:24,800 Speaker 1: this dry weather. Grain prices skyrocketed and the drought didn't 214 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:28,040 Speaker 1: break until September, after the cold weather was over, only 215 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:30,200 Speaker 1: to be about to start again because it was heading 216 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:33,840 Speaker 1: into autumn. The price of flour rose from four dollars 217 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:36,880 Speaker 1: a barrel to between eleven and twenty dollars per barrel, 218 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:40,360 Speaker 1: The wholesale price of wheat nearly doubled, and the price 219 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 1: of virtually every food staple shot up. There was also 220 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:48,320 Speaker 1: a huge increase in migration of farmers from the Eastern 221 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: United States into the West, as people hoped that they 222 00:13:51,679 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 1: would find better growing conditions, and because the West really 223 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 1: hadn't seen the kind of unseasonable cold that the East 224 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:02,680 Speaker 1: Coast had about twice as many people decided to move 225 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:07,200 Speaker 1: west that year, as was typical at that point. In 226 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:11,400 Speaker 1: several states, including New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, 227 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:14,560 Speaker 1: people called for a ban on distillery because of the 228 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: grain shortage. When people couldn't afford grain to feed their 229 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: livestock and their working animals, they ate the animals instead. 230 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:27,440 Speaker 1: So that was North America's eighteen to sixteen summer. In Europe, 231 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,880 Speaker 1: the summer was similarly wintry, but it also seemed like 232 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:34,480 Speaker 1: it got all the rain that North America had been missing. 233 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,360 Speaker 1: Western Europe was the most affected, but crops failed all 234 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:41,120 Speaker 1: over the continent thanks to the fields being flooded and 235 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:45,600 Speaker 1: later frozen. Crops that are sensitive to having too much water, 236 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 1: like wine grapes, really suffered in their quality when they 237 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: managed to survive. Plus, all the incessant rain made things 238 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: generally wet and moldy. Because horses were the main source 239 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:00,200 Speaker 1: of transportation and grain became so much more expensi of 240 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: the cost of travel in Europe skyrocketed. Famine spread in 241 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: Switzerland and Ireland. In Switzerland, the government had to distribute 242 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:12,240 Speaker 1: information about how to tell poisonous plants from ones that 243 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:15,000 Speaker 1: were safe to eat as people try to scavenge what 244 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: they could from out in the woods or the wilds. 245 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: In Ireland, a typhus epidemic spread in the wake of 246 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,640 Speaker 1: the famine. The story that sticks in a lot of 247 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 1: people's minds about how this played out in Europe is 248 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 1: that the infamous evening in which George Gordon, Lord Byron, 249 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: proposed that all of his guests at his Lake Geneva 250 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:38,200 Speaker 1: Villa write a story. That's the visit in which Mary 251 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:41,440 Speaker 1: Shelley wound up writing Frankenstein. That all happened in the 252 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:45,920 Speaker 1: middle of this cold, wretched summer, And also written during 253 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:50,880 Speaker 1: this was Byron's poem Darkness, And that poem begins, I 254 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:53,880 Speaker 1: had a dream which was not all a dream. The 255 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,320 Speaker 1: bright sun was extinguished, and the stars did wander darkling 256 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:01,240 Speaker 1: in the eternal space Raylists and Athlas, and the icy 257 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 1: earth swung blind and blackening in the moonless air. Morn 258 00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:08,880 Speaker 1: came and went and came and brought no day, and 259 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:12,400 Speaker 1: men forgot their passions in the dread of this, their desolation, 260 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:15,760 Speaker 1: and all hearts were chilled to a selfish prayer for 261 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:20,800 Speaker 1: light in Asia. Moving on to the third big place 262 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:24,280 Speaker 1: that we have lots of information about the volcano disrupted 263 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 1: the monsoon cycle in India and Korea, so things were 264 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:29,720 Speaker 1: dry when they were supposed to be wet, and then 265 00:16:29,920 --> 00:16:32,200 Speaker 1: way wetter than they were supposed to be once the 266 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:36,120 Speaker 1: rain actually arrived. This caused rice crops, which really rely 267 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 1: on that monsoon cycle, to fail all over. The change 268 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: in the weather also affected which bacteria could thrive in 269 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 1: the Bay of Bengal, and unfortunately, one species that did 270 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,920 Speaker 1: thrive was a new strain of cholera, which people had 271 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 1: less resistance too than previous strains. Bengal Kolera spread out 272 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,359 Speaker 1: of India to the rest of the world in eighteen seventeen, 273 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:01,200 Speaker 1: and the strain killed tens of millions of people. There's 274 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: actually some debate in the scientific community about just how 275 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:06,159 Speaker 1: much of this shift had to do with the volcano 276 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,439 Speaker 1: and Unon Province in southwestern China, crops failed in the 277 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: face of just a bitter bitter cold and a much 278 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:18,400 Speaker 1: wetter season than normal, and the book Tambora, The Eruption 279 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 1: That Changed the World, author Gillen Darcy Wood connects this 280 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:25,920 Speaker 1: and this massive crop failure in famine to the rise 281 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,359 Speaker 1: of opium growth in Unon as farmers turned to it 282 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:31,840 Speaker 1: in desperation is a way to try to just make 283 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:34,159 Speaker 1: enough money to survive when the rest of their crops 284 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:38,720 Speaker 1: had failed. A huge famine swept through southwest China and 285 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:42,359 Speaker 1: it lasted for years. Neighboring parts of China had an 286 00:17:42,359 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: influx of refugees, and much of the nation faced a 287 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:50,040 Speaker 1: serious social unrest. So before we talk about some of 288 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,639 Speaker 1: the theories at the time for what was going on, 289 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,400 Speaker 1: let's have another pause for a word from a sponsor 290 00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:09,200 Speaker 1: that sounds grand. So unsurprisingly, there were many many explanations 291 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:11,000 Speaker 1: at the time for what was going on and what 292 00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:14,879 Speaker 1: was causing this just bizarre weather. These I actually start 293 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:18,080 Speaker 1: with a story about why the volcano erupted in the 294 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:22,760 Speaker 1: first place. The population of Simbabwe was largely Muslim, and 295 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,400 Speaker 1: there was a folk tale explaining the event, and that 296 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:29,520 Speaker 1: was that a prince had fed a devout Muslim a 297 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,439 Speaker 1: dog and then killed him, and the volcano's eruption was 298 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: an act of divine retribution for that act. A range 299 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:40,680 Speaker 1: of explanations for the weather cropped up in North America 300 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,359 Speaker 1: and Europe as well. A primary theory was sun spots. 301 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: As we mentioned briefly earlier, there were a number of 302 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,200 Speaker 1: extremely large sunspots that year, some of which were visible 303 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:53,679 Speaker 1: to the unaided eye, and people thought these darker areas 304 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:56,439 Speaker 1: of the sun were colder, which is true, and a 305 00:18:56,520 --> 00:19:00,120 Speaker 1: colder sun meant colder weather. Not everyone was on board 306 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 1: with this idea, though, since the timing of the sun 307 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:05,160 Speaker 1: spots did not always match up with the coldest weather. 308 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:10,200 Speaker 1: There's actually a lot of continued study and discussion about 309 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:13,840 Speaker 1: exactly how much sunspots can affect the Earth's weather and climate. 310 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:18,119 Speaker 1: And it's partly because this all happens on such a 311 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,720 Speaker 1: huge scale, and the sunspots cycle itself is so long 312 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 1: that it's almost impossible to isolate just sunspots from all 313 00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:29,600 Speaker 1: of the other stuff in the world that's going on 314 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:33,000 Speaker 1: while the sun spot cycle is peaking. Yeah, you can't 315 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,040 Speaker 1: really turn off the sun to get a control group 316 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 1: without it, Yeah, And you can't turn off the volcanoes 317 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,280 Speaker 1: to study just the sun. Yeah. So I really tried 318 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: to find a definitive answer of good sun spots I've 319 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 1: been and that there's not a definitive answer. Another theory 320 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:49,919 Speaker 1: at this time is that it had something to do 321 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,679 Speaker 1: with ice in North America. Ice seemed to persist in 322 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:56,359 Speaker 1: the Great Lakes for longer than normal, and a number 323 00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:59,800 Speaker 1: of ships reported huge ice floes floating in the North Atlantic. 324 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: People thought that all of this ice was actually sucking 325 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,880 Speaker 1: the heat out of the atmosphere. This is really more 326 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: of a cause and effect situation. There was more ice 327 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:12,400 Speaker 1: on the Great Lakes because it was colder than normal, 328 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:15,800 Speaker 1: But then there was more ice floating in the Northern 329 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:20,880 Speaker 1: Atlantic because this whole time actually caused a warming trend 330 00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:24,000 Speaker 1: over the poles, and so a lot of polar ice 331 00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:27,400 Speaker 1: broke up and floated away, so that it was more 332 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:31,120 Speaker 1: of a cause and effect situation than the ice sucking 333 00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:34,159 Speaker 1: the heat out of the air. Also, a series of 334 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:37,960 Speaker 1: pretty large earthquakes had struck various points on the Earth 335 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,840 Speaker 1: in the eighteen teens, and people also blamed the weather 336 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:45,080 Speaker 1: on this. The idea was that the Earth's motion had 337 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:49,919 Speaker 1: somehow caused some kind of fluid equilibrium between the surface 338 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,879 Speaker 1: of the Earth and the atmosphere, and that until something 339 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:57,200 Speaker 1: broke that equilibrium, that there would not be enough warmth 340 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:02,680 Speaker 1: available for crops to grow. Other scapegoats that were named 341 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:05,600 Speaker 1: as the cause of all of these problems, Benjamin Franklin's 342 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:09,879 Speaker 1: lightning rods, they were stealing electricity and disrupting the weather, 343 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: because you know, he'd invented them in the mid seventeen 344 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:16,360 Speaker 1: hundreds and they'd become more commonplace since then. So clearly, 345 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,080 Speaker 1: since that happened before the weather, it must have caused 346 00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:23,040 Speaker 1: this terrible weather. That there's so many explanations that logic 347 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:28,520 Speaker 1: is sound yet there. I mean, we still see this 348 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,800 Speaker 1: today when people don't totally understand something, and they'll feel 349 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,639 Speaker 1: like that because one thing happened before another thing, that 350 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:38,560 Speaker 1: the first thing caused the second thing, And it's often 351 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,560 Speaker 1: not true at all, right, It's that like chronological causality 352 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:49,320 Speaker 1: attribution that's not always valid. So the prevailing theory today 353 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:53,480 Speaker 1: is that the volcanic activity, including that from Tambora and 354 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 1: the other eruptions that were mentioned at the top of 355 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:58,520 Speaker 1: the show, was at least one of the primary contributors. 356 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:00,720 Speaker 1: And this was actually something that people did discuss a 357 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:02,520 Speaker 1: little bit at the time. It was certainly not a 358 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:04,960 Speaker 1: widespread theory, but there were people who were like, you know, 359 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:07,639 Speaker 1: maybe all this ash in the atmosphere, which is from 360 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 1: a volcano, is making it colder. People are pretty smart 361 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:16,240 Speaker 1: that way. However, eighteen sixteen was not the only year 362 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: in that time period that had weird weather. In general, 363 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,480 Speaker 1: it was colder than normal in a lot of places 364 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,199 Speaker 1: from eighteen twelve to eighteen seventeen, to the point that 365 00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:30,400 Speaker 1: people took notice, and by studying things like ice cores 366 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:34,200 Speaker 1: and tree rings and that kind of long term documentation 367 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:38,200 Speaker 1: that the earth leaves of itself, scientists know that this 368 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:41,080 Speaker 1: was not really just a little five year window of 369 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 1: a cold snap. The eighteen hundred spell at the end 370 00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:46,960 Speaker 1: of a relative cool snap that lasted around the world 371 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:51,240 Speaker 1: for almost five hundred years, starting in fourteen hundred and 372 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,760 Speaker 1: ending in around eighteen sixty. At least in the US, 373 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,680 Speaker 1: the year without a summer prompted people to start making 374 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:03,480 Speaker 1: more routine observances and recordings of weather conditions. The Commissioner 375 00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:06,960 Speaker 1: General of the Land Office, Josiah Meiggs, sent out a 376 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:09,880 Speaker 1: memo to all of his registers at twenty different land 377 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,199 Speaker 1: offices instructing them to make and record a number of 378 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:17,480 Speaker 1: observations about everything from the weather to animal migrations. The 379 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:20,879 Speaker 1: military also started making and recording weather observations at the 380 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,840 Speaker 1: direction of Joseph Lovell, the Surgeon General of the Army, 381 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:27,280 Speaker 1: and the Patent Office and the Smithsonian Institution got in 382 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:30,520 Speaker 1: on the action as well, and consequently, the first published 383 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,760 Speaker 1: weather forecasts came out in the US in eighteen forty nine. 384 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:36,960 Speaker 1: So when I started researching this episode, I kind of 385 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,000 Speaker 1: expected it to be a little bit like The Long 386 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:43,000 Speaker 1: Winter Part two. So we talked about the Long Winter, 387 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:47,359 Speaker 1: which Lara Engels Wilder wrote about last time about this 388 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: time of year, and that was the weather was really cold, 389 00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:55,160 Speaker 1: things were really hard, things were tough, but overall everything 390 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,560 Speaker 1: worked out okay for the most part, and I sort 391 00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:59,800 Speaker 1: of thought this was going to be similar to that. 392 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,600 Speaker 1: I was not expecting all of the famines and deaths 393 00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:10,119 Speaker 1: and the extreme scale of how deadly the volcano was. 394 00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:13,679 Speaker 1: The a lot of like a lot of people who 395 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:16,920 Speaker 1: have written to suggest the topic or other things that 396 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: I've seen about it, kind of go, this was a 397 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:22,359 Speaker 1: year that had terrible weather, a volcano caused it, and 398 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,200 Speaker 1: the that's sort of all that said about the volcano, 399 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,080 Speaker 1: as though the volcano was on an island that was 400 00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:34,600 Speaker 1: totally uninhabited, right, and that is not the case at all. 401 00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: This episode gives me flashbacks to when I was a 402 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 1: kid and Mount Saint Helen's erupted because I lived in 403 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:44,800 Speaker 1: Washington State at the time, so I am very familiar 404 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: with being covered with ash. Yeah, I've never lived near 405 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:51,439 Speaker 1: an active volcano, so I have not had that experience. 406 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,600 Speaker 1: Those are wild times. I remember my biggest concern, and 407 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,320 Speaker 1: again I was a child at the time, so my 408 00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,040 Speaker 1: biggest concern was that all the animals have been killed. 409 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: I was really upset about the animals that may have 410 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,320 Speaker 1: lost our lives. Even though probably most of them fled 411 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: before the activity actually started. I'm sure some still lost 412 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:10,800 Speaker 1: our lives, but that was my big focus as a child. 413 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:12,960 Speaker 1: I did not care that there was crap all over 414 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,879 Speaker 1: everything we owned and like a half inch of ash 415 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,080 Speaker 1: sitting everywhere. I was like, what about the deer? I was, really, 416 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:30,040 Speaker 1: that's my focus. Thanks so much for joining us on 417 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,919 Speaker 1: this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, 418 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 1: if you heard an email address or a Facebook RL 419 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,720 Speaker 1: or something similar over the course of the show, that 420 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,880 Speaker 1: could be obsolete now. Our current email address is History 421 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:46,680 Speaker 1: Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 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