The year was 1816. America was young in her progression towards the future, as well as her infatuation for observing the weather. James Monroe was the newly elected president during a time where an unprecedented string of weather events took place. May through September of 1816 witnessed a backlash from Mother Nature like none other in recorded weather history. An unprecedented series of arctic blasts paved the way for record cold and snowfall in New Hampshire and the Northeast.
Dubbed 'the year without a summer', the phenomenal events were centered around the Mount Washington Valley region of New Hampshire and cascaded into the northeastern United States. During the events, most settlers lived east of the Mississippi River. Those who were interested in observing the weather lived in the Northeast, particularly in New England, where it was a tradition to be a weather watcher. The residences that were interested in the hobby did so with great enthusiasm.
April and May is traditionally filled with occasional days of cool readings. However, during 1816, the blasts of cold air that occurred were anything but insignificant. Flowers and trees began to bud by early June, which was due to the cold air. Nearly five days of mild weather, which began at the beginning of June, forced farmers to forget about the frost that was abundant during April and May. The conditions were short-lived due to a frontal passage that occurred the following days. Due to the cold front, the temperature dropped upwards of forty degrees in hour's time.
The freezing weather continued through June as snowfall occurred in record levels. Areas of New Hampshire and Vermont received upwards of twenty inches of snow in separate events. By July, a snow pack of eighteen to twenty inches was prominent. Four weeks of relatively calm weather followed, only to aid in melting the snow. The new crops that were planted in July were killed by another blast of cold air during August. In areas such as Keene, the farmers cut their fields into fodder by the end of month. Their judgment was clever because another blast of arctic air occurred during the month of September.
The blast of cold air that happened during September was the final bout of abnormal weather. The area received freezing temperatures shortly thereafter, because it was autumn. The reasoning behind the record cold air and snowfall during the summer of 1816 was due to three major volcanic eruptions that occurred upwards of three years prior. It has been estimated that the final eruption blew 100 cubic miles of dust, ash, and cinders into the atmosphere. This created a global churning veil of dust, which paved the way for completely opposite conditions for what we know to be summer.