Volcano Weather: Prepping For A Year Without Summer

Volcano Weather

The title of this post is also the title of a book, “Volcano Weather: The Story of the Year Without a Summer 1816” by Henry Stommel and Elizabeth Stommel.  Unfortunately, this book (non-fiction) is now out of print, but used copies can be found. 

When I first became aware of this story, I had heard of the eruption of Mount Krakatoa in the late 1800s, but had never heard of Mount Tambora, the volcano that had an even larger eruption, resulting in the year without a summer during 1816.

Mount Tambora: Distributor Of Volcano Weather

Mount Tambora today

Mount Tambora managed to explode in 1815, just as the War of 1812 was ending, so it was recent enough to be a documented event, but at the time, news traveled at the speed of sailing ships.  Science was not sufficiently advanced to recognize an event responsible for changes in worldwide weather patterns, as Tambora’s eruption did.  People were experiencing bizarre strange weather without understanding why it was happening until long after the fact.  Eventually, people put cause and effect together.

Today, most of the volcanic activity we experience is local in effect.  Prepper fiction doesn’t seem to find volcanic activity sufficiently “apocalyptic”, relying on the Yellowstone Caldera, which last exploded over 600,000 years ago, for the few stories based on volcanic eruptions that I have seen.  However, the eruption of Mount Tambora had tremendous impact.  If it were to happen today, it would be worldwide news for a year or more.

A Big, Deadly BANG!

It is estimated more than 71,000 people died and the explosion could be heard over 1,200 kilometers away.  The chart below, gives a sense of the scale of the eruption.  The top 5,000 feet of the mountain was blown away.

How Did Tambora effect the weather?

The eruption of Mount Tambora occurred just as the era of recording temperatures and other weather phenomenon was beginning.  However, despite the relative paucity of weather data, the impact was so dramatic that even in that era of poor communications, and rudimentary weather forecasting, people figured out that a volcano in Indonesia was causing worldwide weather disruptions, albeit slowly.  Essentially, the volcano discharged so much ash into the upper atmosphere that by the summer of 1816, New England and Northern Europe were experiencing snow and frost through the spring and summer.  New England had snow in July.

Snow in July?

One expects snow in New England, but not in July!  That is the prime growing season for what at the time was an agrarian economy.  Weather of this nature destroyed crops, causing extreme food shortages, and ultimately prompted movement of large numbers of people, similar to the impact of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.  Many people left New England, some permanently, and others returning over the next few years as things returned to normal.

Essentially New England and Northern Europe suffered the weather equivalent of a nuclear winter in a pre-nuclear age, but the cause was a volcano.  Slow communications at the time delayed understanding of the cause and people were unprepared for the event.

While there was some ability to ship in food from areas further south, prices shot up dramatically and suffering was severe.  Imagine such an event in today’s world where there is much more population and farming is much more concentrated.  Would we be able to compensate for crop failures in some regions by shipping in food from areas that were less affected?

Today’s World

Recently we have been seeing seismic activity around the ring of fire.  What would be the impact of a similar volcanic event today?  Some of the effects would be similar to 1816, such as crop failures, food shortages, etc.  Other problems would be modern in nature, such as problems with aircraft being able to operate with ash in the air.  We could expect an uptick in breathing related ailments due to the ash in the air, with health risks for anyone with a pre-existing condition affecting either breathing, or lung function.

In order to prepare, your usual preps should do the trick, though you may be looking at a period measured in years, depending on the size of the eruption.  Food purchased at pre-eruption prices will stretch your budget until normalcy returns, a supply of air filters for vehicles for more frequent changes, would be a good idea, hypo-allergenic filters for your home HVAC system and some air masks for the family will round out the necessities.

The problems may, or may not, be compounded by indirect effects, such as wars, grid failures, etc. or simply an inability to respond to unexpected weather phenomenon.