The Year Without Summer

By Ken Anderson, themayberryguru@gmail.com

There have always been years when Mother Nature pulled off some strange events. But there were few stranger than the one she brought forth with The Year Without Summer.

The Year Without Summer occurred in 1816 and began due to a massive April volcanic eruption in the Dutch East Indies, which in modern times is Indonesia. The tremendous amount of volcanic ash and gases in the air blocked sunlight, causing significant global cooling. The countries of France, Great Britain, and Ireland were impacted by food shortages. These shortages led to widespread famine and riots as people were desperate for food. Europe was beginning to recover from the Napoleonic Wars, which just made a bad situation even worse.

North America was not exempt from the climate change. Summer in the eastern United States changed drastically as a "dry fog" made sunlight scarce, resulting in frigid temperatures and frost throughout the entire summer. Like Europe, North America also experienced food shortages due to crop failures. This led to people from the eastern United States moving westward in search of warmer weather. Crop failures were especially severe in the higher elevations of the eastern United States.

According to some diary entries during this time, the temperature fell below freezing in many areas for May. Diary entries stated that the ground froze several times in June, and it was so cold in July that the crops stopped growing. There were also reports of 12-inch icicles hanging from buildings during the middle of "summer."

Man has always been at the mercy of the weather and climate change. This was even true in Mayberry. In one episode of The Andy Griffith Show, the folks of Mayberry had to endure a very hot and dry summer. Crops began to fail due to lack of rain, so prices continued to rise due to crop shortages. The people of Mayberry became so desperate that they turned to a group of Gypsies who said they could make it rain. The Gypsies did indeed predict the exact time when rain would come. However, it was discovered that they did so only because of a shortwave radio they had in their caravan.

Let's hope the summer of 2025 will be normal, with average temperatures and precipitation. As Mayberry barber Floyd Lawson says, "Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it."