[summer '85]

Here are some links about the summer of 1816

 

http://www.dandantheweatherman.com/Bereklauw/yearnosummer.html
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/history/1816.htm
http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/earth/year_without_summer/facts/index.shtml
http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/32_03/summer.html

[summer '85]

 I was half-expecting a reply from Glyn along the lines

"Summer 2006: Year without Summer, part II. :-) [^] 666 :o "  [hehe]

 

[Howard Kirby]

Ah the Tambora eruption. Didn't the Laki Fissure eruption in 1783 in Iceland have a similar effect across Northern Europe? I think I wrote something about that at university....

[Chris Alder]

As far as I am concerned 1816 can stay the year without a summer and will not be linked to 2006 in any sort of way ;)

[summer '85]

Quote

Howard Kirby - 15/5/2006 17:30 Ah the Tambora eruption. Didn't the Laki Fissure eruption in 1783 in Iceland have a similar effect across Northern Europe? I think I wrote something about that at university....

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/europe_west_asia/laki.html

[Howard Kirby]

Yeah that's the one. [y]

[Steve M]

Wow, what a horrible summer that must have been. I would have hated that beyond words :D Thankfully though we live in a warmer climate in this day and age and such a cold summer is unlikely to occur again in our lifetime. Although, with many of the experts suggesting we could be heading for another ice age (Global Cooling!), maybe a scenario like the summer of 1816, could be closer than we think.Let's hope not :-)

[summer '85]

Summer was the 3rd coldest summer ever recorded for England and Wales

The coldest was summer 1725 with a CET of 13.1

 Summer 1907 had a CET of 13.6 and this was followed 2 years later with summer 1909 recording a CET of 13.9

 

[Spirit of 1740]

Quote

summer '85 - 16/5/2006 17:08

 I was half-expecting a reply from Glyn along the lines

"Summer 2006: Year without Summer, part II. :-) [^] 666 :o "  [hehe]

Yes, but hopefully colder 8-)

[summer '85]

Temperatures at Tottenham for the summer of 1816

June
1. 70f, 55f
2. 72f, 49f
3. 65f, 46f
4. 65f, 50f
5. 67f, 41f
6. 64f, 44f
7. 61f, 46f
8. 62f, 42f
9. 57f, 37f
10. 58f, 41f
11. 65f, 39f
12. 70f, 37f
13. 75f, 54f
14. 53f, 48f
15. 59f, 44f
16. 67f, 36f
17. 67f, 48f
18. 71f, 53f
19. 69f, 47f
20. 74f, 55f
21. 71f, 51f
22. 78f, 53f
23. 69f, 50f
24. 63f, 48f
25. 73f, 56f
26. 70f, 54f
27. 63f, 50f
28. 69f, 47f
29. 78f, 58f
30. 76f, 53f

July
1. 63f, 51f
2. 73f, 53f
3. 64f, 50f
4. 66f, 46f
5. 66f, 56f
6. 69f, 56f
7. 69f, 52f
8. 70f, 52f
9. 70f, 51f
10. 73f, 51f
11. 66f, 54f
12. 65f, 48f
13. 67f, 49f
14. 65f, 58f
15. 71f, 52f
16. 63f, 52f
17. 67f, 50f
18. 66f, 51f
19. 70f, 58f
20. 81f, 65f
21. 70f, 54f
22. 70f, 58f
23. 73f, 55f
24. 64f, 52f
25. 65f, 54f
26. 68f, 53f
27. 64f, 53f
28. 64f, 46f
29. 63f, 45f
30. 64f, 41f
31. 65f, 48f

August
1. 63f, 49f
2. 67f, 51f
3. 68f, 49f
4. 69f, 47f
5. 70f, 51f
6. 68f, 57f
7. 70f, 57f
8. 74f, 55f
9. 67f, 53f
10. 65f, 57f
11. 70f, 57f
12. 67f, 56f
13. 66f, 62f
14. 68f, 58f
15. 71f, 56f
16. 65f, 52f
17. 61f, 49f
18. 62f, 51f
19. 67f, 55f
20. 64f, 42f
21. 66f, 50f
22. 68f, 53f
23. 66f, 66f
24. 70f, 45f
25. 69f, 44f
26. 67f, 47f
27. 66f, 44f
28. 70f, 46f
29. 64f, 52f
30. 61f, 53f
31. 59f, 46f

CETs
June: 12.8
July: 13.4
August: 13.9

"The character of this period has been, on the whole, ungenial; though not one frosty night has occurred, yet cloudy, with blighting winds, mostly predominated and the mean temperature turns out nearly 5F lower than the corresponding portion of 1815.(mid May-mid June)"  

Quebec, 10th June: We had a fall of snow here on the 8th, several inches deep. The weather is still cold and it snows at intervals; the trees are not yet in bloom and the oldest inhabitants does not remember such a season."

Nova Scotia: There has not been, for upward of forty years, so backward a season as the present. Although now in the middle of June, but little vegetation has taken place and there is scarcely any seed sown in the ground. Ice was seen on the morning of the 11th June, in the harbour and a few days since snow was falling in different parts of the country.

New York, 15th of June: The cold weather and even frosts continued in upper parts of the State, large icicles were pending and the foliage of the forests was blasted by the frost.

Kendal Chronicle, 4th of July: A traveller who has visited the top of Hlvellyn this day brought to the office a lump of snow from the summit. The gentleman informs us, that he saw three or four patches of snow, varying in extent in different directions.

"Our naval column hears the aspect of winter -- strong gales, ships on shore and loss of anchors, are rather unusual in the month of July."

On a hill, the property of Sir A. Ramsey, in the parish of Fettercairn at the distance of little more than twelve miles from the German Ocean, there was a remnant of a wreath of snow, which measured on the 6th of July five feet deep and eighty yards in circumference.

John Gibson: "During a tour of nine weeks, in this interval, extending from Amsterdam to Geneva, I had ample occasion to witness the fact, that the excessive rains of the summer were not confined to our own islands, but took place over a great part of the continent of Europe. From the sources of the Rhine among the Alps, to its embouchure in the German Ocean and through a space twice or thrice as broad from east to west, the whole season presented a series of storms and inundations. Not meadows and villages alone, but portions of cities and large towns, lay long under water, dikes were broken, bridges blown up, the crops spoiled or carried off by torrents and the vintage ruined by the want of the sun to bring out and ripen the fruit.

While the middle of Europe was thus suffering from wet, the North for a time, and to a certain extent was parched with drought, and public prayers appear to have been ordered about the same time, at Dantzic and Riga for rain and at Paris for sunshine! The probable natural causes of this unequal distribution may form a subject for discussion in another part of the week: it would be in this place be premature. I have found the principal part of the evidence respecting it in numerous circumstantial accounts of the weather given in the public papers during the summer months."

[summer '85]

Some weather observations from London

June
2.  A fine breeze
5-6th: Showery
7-10th: Rain, 987mb on 8th
12th: The hygrometer receded to 30F
15th: Overcast with cool breeze
16th: A fine day: the air becomes calmer
23rd: Cloudy am, showery day, evening cold
24th: Cloudy am, a strong cold wind from NW
26th: Between ten and eleven and rain began, which continued without intermission all day: in the evening and night it was extremely heavy.
27th: Morning very much overcast: the rain fallen from 9 yesterday morning to nine this morning amounts to 2.05 inches, a very unusual quantity for the neighbourhood of London.
29-30th: Foggy mornings: overcast.

July
4th: Showery day, some hail about 3pm
5th: Showery morning, the day fine
6th: Overcast morning: heavy dew
8th: Showery morning, fine day
10th: Showery morning, fine afternoon
12th: Cloudy morning: squally afternoon.
14th: A gentle rain nearly all day
15th: Rainy morning: showery day.
16th: Very rainy day
18th: Squally day
19th: Rainy morning, very bositerous wind all day with showers
21st: Showery day, a strong breeze from the SW.
24th: Very rainy day, some thunder in the afternoon
25th: Foggy morning
30th: A heavy shower of rain between 1 and 2pm: some hail
31st: Very foggy morning, a thunderstorm in the evening

August
2nd: Showery day
5th: Foggy morning, trees dripping. Some thunder in the afternoon, very rainy night.
19th: Clear morning
23rd: A little rain evening
24th: Cloudy morning, a considerable appearance for thunder, evening.
26th: Much dew
28th: Foggy morning
29th: Very foggy
30th: Cloudy mroning
31st: Wet morning, stormy night with heavy rain

[mianfei]

summer said:

Here are some links about the summer of 1816



http://www.dandanthe...arnosummer.html
http://www.islandnet...istory/1816.htm
http://www.discovery...cts/index.shtml
http://www.astrosoci..._03/summer.html

It‘s notable that for the period from May to August, the ten coolest seasons since 1766 in Central England have been:

Rank	Year	MJJA Central England Temperature	MJJA England and Wales Precipitation
# 1	1879	12.47˚C	490.6 mm
# 2	1816	12.50˚C	385.9 mm
# 3	1907	12.83˚C	323.6 mm
# 4	1817	12.86˚C	447.1 mm
# 5	1888	12.86˚C	352.5 mm
# 6	1902	12.94˚C	294.8 mm
# 7	1860	12.98˚C	463.8 mm
# 8=	1814	13.03˚C	270.2 mm
# 8=	1845	13.03˚C	338.6 mm
# 10	1812	13.10˚C	313.0 mm
AVERAGE	1766 to 1967	14.25˚C	296.9 mm

That shows four of the ten coolest seasons since 1766 in the space of six years between 1812 and 1817. (The averages are based on a period up to 1967 because of my knowledge about climate change in southwestern Australia, where rainfall remained stable up to 1967 but has since, driven by the poleward expansion of the descending side of the Hadley circulation by about eighteen kilometres per year, declined linearly by about 1.1 percent per year).

It’s notable, too, that 1814 was exceptionally cool without being at all wet: in fact 1814 had the driest May to August period since 1803 - and that during what was for England a very dry era on the whole, as seen by the fact that 1816 with 1,006 millimetres was in fact the wettest year since 1799, yet seven of the past fifteen years (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2012) have been wetter than 1816. The only summers (May to August) since that rival it remotely are:

Year	MJJA CET	MJJA EWP	Notes
1821	13.23˚C	262.2 mm	As in 1814, May cooler than April, but rainfall only average. June also coolish, but distinctly dry.
1844	13.59˚C	196.7 mm	Extremely dry spell in first half of summer and exceptionally cool August (CET 13.5˚C)
1854	13.53˚C	267.2 mm	Only 606.7 mm EWP for 12 months ending January 1855. Distinctly cool June
1885	13.17˚C	228.3 mm	Both May and August exceptionally cool
1962	13.40˚C	231.3 mm	Very dry June with EWP only 17.8 mm, but 28˚C not reached all year
1972	13.26˚C	235.3 mm	Coolest June of twentieth century
1977	13.49˚C	266.5 mm

It’s notable that the extremely dry May to August of 1818, which had only 158.5 millimetres of rain or the fourth lowest on record, had an average Central England Temperature of only 15.29˚C, which even up to 1967 is only twenty-third hottest. Still, the dry and warm summer of 1818, and a hot autumn with trees in blossom to conclude probably the weirdest pair of years in England’s recorded climate history, must have still constituted some shock after the second-wettest spring and a run of cool summers since 1809! Perhaps the warm, dry summer of 1818 is a reflection of greenhouse gases and carbon monoxide from volcanic eruptions, but the summers from 1819 to 1825 were all cool or average except for 1822.

[al78]

summer said:

Temperatures at Tottenham for the summer of 1816

June
1. 70f, 55f
2. 72f, 49f
3. 65f, 46f
4. 65f, 50f
5. 67f, 41f
6. 64f, 44f
7. 61f, 46f
8. 62f, 42f
9. 57f, 37f
10. 58f, 41f
11. 65f, 39f
12. 70f, 37f
13. 75f, 54f
14. 53f, 48f
15. 59f, 44f
16. 67f, 36f
17. 67f, 48f
18. 71f, 53f
19. 69f, 47f
20. 74f, 55f
21. 71f, 51f
22. 78f, 53f
23. 69f, 50f
24. 63f, 48f
25. 73f, 56f
26. 70f, 54f
27. 63f, 50f
28. 69f, 47f
29. 78f, 58f
30. 76f, 53f

That looks pretty decent compared to last year.

This post has been edited by al78: 19 May 2013 - 13:19