The Year Without a Summer on This Day in History

This Day in History: There was 10 inches of snowfall in New England on this day in 1816 in what came to be called the "year without a summer." At the Church Family of Shakers near New Lebanon, New York, Nicholas Bennet wrote in May 1816, "all was froze" and the hills were "barren like winter". Temperatures went below freezing almost every day in May. The ground froze on June 9. On June 12, the Shakers had to replant crops destroyed by the cold. On July 7, it was so cold, everything had stopped growing. The Berkshire Hills had frost again on August 23, as did much of the upper northeast.

In July and August, lakes and rivers froze over ice as far south as Pennsylvania with frost reported as far south as Virginia in late August. Dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) to near-freezing within hours.

Ex-president Thomas Jefferson also experienced crop failure which sent him further into debt.

It is believed that this phenomenon was caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in April in the Dutch East Indies (which is now Indonesia).