The Year Without A Summer by Jenna Jaxon

Inspired in part by the frigid temperatures a lot of the country is experiencing right now, I thought I’d tell you how in 1816, parts of North America and Europe, especially England, experienced one of the coldest years on record. The weather was so consistently cold 1816 became known as the Year Without A Summer.

It started the year before, in April 1815, on the other side of the world. Mount Tambora, in Indonesia, exploded in the largest volcanic eruption

ever known. Over the course of two weeks, the volcano spewed millions of tons of ash, dust, and sulfur dioxide, killing the inhabitants nearest the blast. In addition, the material and gasses shot into the atmosphere and blanketed the Earth in a “volcanic winter” thoroughly enough to change the world’s climate by 3 degrees for a short period of time. This eruption was worse than the eruptions of either Krakatoa or Mount Vesuvius.

People on the other side of the world had no idea of Tambora’s eruption, however, by early 1816, the particles and gasses had drifted far enough to blanket a section of Northern America and England. They began to notice that instead of the days getting warmer, they were staying cold and odd phenomenon, such as tornadoes and earthquakes, were occurring near London. In June snow was reported on the summit of Mount Helvellyn in the Lake District, and July and August were reportedly colder and rainier than usual.

These cooler than usual temperatures led to failed crops, famine, and wide-spread disease. More food had to be imported and those who could not afford the rise in prices starved. People with constitutions weakened by hunger were ripe targets for disease. A major cholera outbreak in England has been blamed on the cold temperatures.

Other interesting events have also been attributed to the cold summer of 1816. With the lack of food for people came a loss of food for horses, such as oats, as well. To compensate for the lack of horses no longer kept, the invention of an early prototype of a bicycle came about. The summer of 1816 also may have had a hand in causing Mary Shelley to write her classic novel, Frankenstein. She and a group of friends fled the dreary conditions in England, only to end up holed up in a Swiss chateau by the cold and rain. They decided to all write ghost stories and the rest is, as they say, history.

I came upon the notion of a “year without a summer” when I was researching To Woo A Wicked Widow, the first book my upcoming series, The Widows’ Club. The series begins in June 1816, one year after the Battle of Waterloo had widowed so many women. In June 1816 these women, the heroines of my series, were just coming out of their mourning period, so I was researching the year, and when one character holds a house party in the country, I had to check on the weather for that time of year as well. To my surprise, I had to change the timeline of the novel slightly to accommodate the later ripening and poorer quality of crops that year as a Harvest Festival figures prominently in my story.

After about three years the particles of dust and ash settled back to ground and the sulfur dioxide dissipated, resulting in the rather speedy return to the normal climate of England.

Corn Laws, Enclosures, and Poor Harvests = Unrest in Britian

In fiction set in Regency England, there’s often some mention of the Corn Laws. These laws regulated the importing of grain (in England, corn refers to any grain). Corn Laws date back to the Twelfth Century, however, they became particularly important in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s due to both a population growth in Britain and blockades from the French during the Napoleonic Wars. 

In the 1700’s, wheat prices had fallen due to an influx of foreign grain. At the same time, the Enclosed Acts had been passed—this meant there was no longer any open land that anyone might farm. Added onto all of this were the Game Laws—the penalty for poaching “or even being found in possession of a net at night” was transportation. 

While the Enclosure Acts enabled landowners to extend their parks and fields, those without land lost their right to trap extra meat on open land. The poor were now in a precarious spot. 

The Corn Laws stated that no foreign wheat (the staple of the poor) could be imported until British wheat reached  a price of 80/- per quarter. At the same time, those who worked the fields did not see an increase in wages to match and increase in food prices.

Bad harvest hit England in 1795, again over 1799 to 1801, and then again in 1802 and yet again between 1812 to 1822. One bad harvest is one thing—almost every farmer knows to store grain to deal with a bad year, and large scale farms can always get credit to get past one rough season. But repeated reduction in production meant two things—higher prices of the most basic food stuffs, and those with low incomes had less money to spend on goods. Manufactures also suffered losses due to the bad years.

The years 1810–1811 had cold winters (1811 was the year the Thames froze sold, and it froze again in 1814), and then heavy rains often brought floods, particularly to the east, where the fens provided very bad drainage. Poor harvests were noted in 1809 to 1812, with rioting as “banks failed and export trade collapsed.” Along with this was the Luddite uprising, and in 1812 in Nottingham, “a riot, engendered by the prevailing famine, commenced in the morning.” But the fail harvest came in better than in the prior year, which helped with a temporary fall in grain prices.

With all this going on, it starts to seem reasonable why England feared there might be a similar revolution to the one that occurred in France. France’s revolution had been driven not just by a need for equality, but by poor crops and an increased population. England faced similar issues.

The winters of 1813 and 1814 were again cold and long, delaying the ability to plant. Frosts were reported in many districts that lasted on through May, and summer storms brought hail and rain, which caused extensive crop damage in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. By the end of August, the weather turned hot and farmers who had survived were able to get in their harvests. By October and November, early freezes and hard rains hit many areas of England and Scotland.

In 1815, the government attempted to fix corn prices, and, but the country saw unrest and riots in may of the hardest hit areas. In 1815, the national debt also stood at £834 million, but the Income Tax, enacted to pay for the war with France was eliminated, shifting the burden of payment to indirect taxation. Again, the poor were hit the hardest as tax fell onto good purchased. Those with money could afford this—those without had even less money. The end of the war in Europe finally meant that Britain could again freely import grain, but any import was more expensive than local produce—and the grain could only be imported based on what the Corn Laws allowed.

But 1815 again saw a hard winter, as did 1816. The Farmer's Magazine summarized 1816’s harvest as “uncommonly unpropitious” and comparing it with “the memorable year 1799”.

While hardy root crops that could survive frosts would provide some food, grains and cash crops failed. The Farmer's Magazine reported that many tenant farmers were unable to pay rents, and many landlords were unwilling to offer abatement. In Wales, the tax was collected in certain districts in goods rather than in coin.

Reports in Nottingham were that gentlemen who were well off would come to market and distribute food to those without.  At the same time, Britain was also having to deal with a large military force returning from Europe, most of whom had not been back home in a very long time. This provided an even larger workforce, but in some areas jobs were scarce or low paying. The smart soldiers stayed in the army and went on to other spots of unrest in the growing empire.

Another wet summer occurred in 1817, with crops reported as “bad” in Scotland, and then 1818 provided a long, hot, dry summer, with rains finally arriving in autumn, then back to cold in 1819 with late frosts in May, and wet again in 1820. The up and downs of the weather continued on through until the late 1800s. And it was the potato blight and famine in 1845 that finally brought about the end of the Corn Laws, which were repealed in 1846.

1816: The Year Without A Summer, Part I

1816 was supposed to be a good year in Regency England. After almost twenty years of warfare, 1815 had seen Napoleon's final defeat and his exile to St. Helena in the southern Atlantic.

But even as a welcome peace settled over the land, a large number of cloudy days, temperatures much colder than average and excessive rain conspired against the return of prosperity.

Early 1816 in England ranks with 1814 as one of the two coldest winters since records were first kept in 1659. In the London area, snow fell on Easter (April 14), and again on May 12. A summer peppered with notably cold periods and unusually high amounts of rain succeeded the frigid winter. On July 30, snow drifts were still on Helvellyn, the highest peak in the Helvellyn range in the Lake District, and in early September, ice formed on water in London.

The depressed temperatures prevented normal crop growth and the copious rain caused what did sprout to rot in the fields. Poor harvests had been the rule for the previous few years, and 1816's crop failure led to food shortages. This dismal year was then succeeded by the bitter winter of 1817.

Since the weather prevented the crops from growing, farm laborers were left without employment. At the same time, returning soldiers seeking work swamped the country. The Corn Laws, enacted the previous year, had set the price of grain at a high level. The intent was to protect British farmers from an onslaught of cheap foreign grain. But after successive years of abysmal harvests, British grain prices soared to heights the poor couldn't afford. Food riots broke out and food warehouses were looted. In one riot in Dundee, rioters ransacked over 100 shops and a grain store.

Disease usually accompanies famine, and 1816 was no exception. The food shortages led to the typhus epidemic of 1816-1819, responsible for the deaths of an estimated 100,000 Irish.

What produced such atrocious weather? In my next post, I'll explore the physical causes of The Year Without A Summer.

Thank you all,
Linda