Year Without a Summer (Poverty Year).

The Year Without a Summer describes a climatological abnormality that decreased global temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere in 1816. The drop in temperatures was caused by Tambora’s massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indies) the year prior. The eruption threw so much ash and volcanic gas into the atmosphere that it lessened the normal amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface. As a result, global temperatures dropped, and unheard-of events like significant snowfall and plant-killing frosts occurred in mid-summer. The lack of a fertile growing season caused widespread food shortages and, coupled with other impacts, resulted in over 100,000 deaths. Because of this, 1816 has been called the “poverty year” for the widespread hardship that occurred.