This season we have had plenty of summer weather for Rochester as the temperature reached at least 90° on several occasions. But what if the heat did not return for the summer season? According to records that is what happened almost 200 years ago. You may have heard reference to ‘the year without a summer’ which occurred in 1816. In that highly unusual season, portions of Canada, the northeast U.S. and most of Europe experienced extremely cold temperatures for this time of the year. Winter storms raged into June with reports of as much as 9-12" of snow on the 6th of June in New Hampshire. Lake and river ice was reported in July and August as far south as central Pennsylvania. A killing freeze swept through the northeast in mid-September which ended what was left of the growing season. The cause was a major volcanic eruption at Mount Tambora in 1815 and, in addition to lower solar activity that year, it helped cool the Earth.
