More than two centuries ago, a powerful volcanic eruption reshaped global climate, history, and culture. In April 1815, Mount Tambora erupted violently on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, killing tens of thousands of people and triggering widespread devastation. Its effects would soon be felt far beyond the region.
The following year, 1816, became known as the infamous “year without a summer,” as unusually cold and wet conditions spread across Europe and North America. According to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters, such extreme cooling would not have been possible without the Tambora eruption.
Researchers explain that the volcano released vast amounts of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, where it formed sulphate aerosols that reflected sunlight and significantly reduced global temperatures. The study estimates that global temperatures dropped between one and three degrees Celsius, making 1816 the coldest year in at least 250 years. Europe experienced its coldest recorded summer between 1766 and 2000.
The climate impacts were severe. Crop failures, livestock deaths, and widespread famine affected much of Europe and parts of North America. In New England, snow and killing frost were reported during the summer months, while persistent cloud cover darkened skies for weeks. Historians have described the period as the last major subsistence crisis in the Western world.
Beyond its humanitarian impact, the climatic disaster also influenced history and culture. Rising food and oat prices, driven by agricultural collapse, helped inspire Karl Drais to invent the bicycle in 1817 as an alternative to horse-based transportation. Meanwhile, gloomy weather in Switzerland confined a group of writers near Lake Geneva, where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, alongside works by Lord Byron and John Polidori.
Scientists used historical data and climate models to compare 1816 with similar atmospheric conditions in other years. Only when volcanic forcing from Tambora was included were researchers able to reproduce the extreme cold and wet conditions of that summer. The study concludes that the eruption increased the likelihood of such extreme cooling by up to 100 times.
The eruption of Mount Tambora remains one of the most explosive of the last millennium, leaving a legacy that demonstrates how a single natural event can alter climate, societies, and even human creativity on a global scale.
