Research Report #49: 1816 — The Year Without a Summer — near New Paltz
For many years scientists and naturalists have been studying and observing the flora and fauna of the Shawangunk Ridge. Foremost among them was Daniel Smiley, for whom Mohonk Preserve’s Daniel Smiley Research Center is named. Dan wrote numerous reports summarizing his observations on various topics. This regularly occurring series will feature some of these reports; some hold tremendous scientific value today and just await an interested researcher to follow up, others showcase a quirky sense of humor or highlight an oddity of nature.
Read the Report: 1816 — “The year Without a Summer” — near New Paltz. November 1984. Daniel Smiley.
A Note from Paul C. Huth, Director of Research Emeritus: Working with Daniel Smiley on his long-term ecosystem research projects in the early 1980’s, I well remember the interest that Dan had in volcanos! Why an interest in volcanos you might ask? I think the answer is of particular interest, and is an example of Dan relating distant global events in our closed atmospheric system to influences on local weather observations and events. It also shows the extraordinary breadth of subjects that attracted Dan’s attention, many well ahead of conventional science.
On Sunday, 18 May 1980, all of our attention turned to the explosive eruption of the stratovolcano Mount St. Helens across the country in Washington State. Large and spectacular to us at the time, it had a VEI of 5. The Volcanic Explosivity Index, from 0 to 8, is a logarithmic “measure of the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions,” integrating “how much volcanic material is thrown out, to what height, and how long the eruption lasts.” The largest ever known, like Yellowstone and Toba, were given a VEI of 8. Some three days after the Mount St. Helens eruption, the resulting dust cloud passed over New York State. A small rainstorm of 0.36 inches, as measured at the Mohonk Lake Cooperative Weather Station (NWS), brought down some of the volcanic material carried eastward in the atmosphere. Regular pH testing of each precipitation episode at the Daniel Smiley Research Center, since 1977, allowed us to determine that the average pH of samples of this unique rainfall episode was 5.38. That, well above the annual average of pH 4.1 for 64 storms in all of 1979. Later, in contact with Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory scientists, we learned that a sample of this precipitation episode that we had collected at Mohonk for them, as part of their long-term study of the atmospheric isotopes of tritium and deuterium, also showed an abnormally low marker ratio.
On 2 July 1982, Dan recorded the following, “Jane, Paul, and I have each noticed an unusual appearance to the sky during the last few days, variously described as: hazy, filtered, smoked glass, partial eclipse. Yet, it seems to be a bright sunny day. However, as we look at the sunlight in the forest it seems weak.” Investigating what might be causing this atmospheric condition, we were surprised to find research that showed it was likely from the huge explosive eruption of the El Chichón stratovolcano in southern Mexico on 4 April. It was reported to have “shot 10 million tons of debris into the upper atmosphere, at least 10 times as much material as produced by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.” As the cloud was moving northward, “it was bringing with it a colorful side effect-bright orange sunsets.” This was not a new atmospheric phenomenon to Dan, since he made notes as early as 4 and 16 October 1974, of clear sky observations of an “orange and/or pink (colored) sunrise and sunset, presumably dust” spreading from the VEI 4 eruption of stratovolcano Fuego in Guatemala.
Because of a serendipitous opportunity in 1977, a window opened for us to look into a short but unique period of Ulster County natural history and climate from over 160 years ago. Knowing of Dan’s interest in natural and cultural history, William Heidgerd, of the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz, provided Dan and Mohonk Trust research staff with access to an historical diary of prominent local resident Josiah DuBois from the important period of “March 1816 through October 1822.” Farmer Josiah DuBois, as most farmers, had an “interest in natural history and weather,” and most importantly, Josiah recorded his observations in his diary. His farm was located on the west side of the Wallkill, “about two miles southwest of New Paltz.” It originally encompassed about a thousand acres which he inherited in March 1816, that was part of the 1677 New Paltz Patent. Josiah built a home there on the land, and moved in with his second wife in 1822. A Dutch barn on the property is said to have dated to 1775. The property was later passed down through inheritance to become the Blake Farm.
Dan reports in this 1984 Historical/Cultural Note, that “my interest in this diary was in connection with ecosystem ecology studies. The New England year without a summer (1816) is believed to have been caused by an April 1815 eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora.” This major explosion, on 10 and 11 April 1815, had a VEI of 7, and is considered by scientists to be “the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history,” ejecting some “36 cubic miles,” or more, material into the atmosphere. Dan noted, “The upper atmosphere dust cloud traveled around the world and dispersed into the northern hemisphere in about a year, where it continued to influence the weather of the world, as well as natural and human affairs, for several years.” While Dan had gathered numerous popular and scientific articles and correspondence about the Tambora eruption and its effects, he could find no local accounts until this diary emerged. While handwritten and somewhat difficult to read, research staff “deciphered selected items having to do with weather and natural history.” Dan felt “It seemed of interest to reproduce these (diary) excerpts as the only record I have found of the effect of the Tambora eruption on the Ulster County ecosystem.” The diary observations indicated that some of the impacts noted in northern New York and New England were “not as severe in Ulster County….but the summer of 1816 was abnormally cool and very dry on the DuBois farm.” Notes on spring bird arrivals and flowering plants are also of considerable interest.
1816
- 15 May — “Morning smart white frost which produced ice killing the beans that were up and the walnut leaves in the woods.”
- 30 May — “Morning fair, calm, cold 43°, slight white frost.”
- 10 June — “Sunrise clear, calm, 37°,white frost in the meadow….”
- 11 June — “Sunrise clear, calm, cold 37°, white frost in the meadows.”
- 10 July — “….reports say that on the morning of the 8th and 9th of this month there was a white frost in several parts of this County so severe as to kill Indian corn, vast quantities of white clouds.”
- 12 July — “Great quantities of white clouds this morning, severe drought….”
- 21 July — “Morning warm, foggy, calm, the rain that fell last evening wet the earth not more than 1” deep….”
- 26 July — “Fair, calm, heavy dew at sunrise, 52°.”
- 29 August — Fair, calm, white frost on our meadows.”
- 10 September — “Sowed 1 1/4 bushels of rye on oat stubble, the earth where I sowed the rye was as dry as an ash heap, the earth on our pasture fields had to all appearance no moisture in them and from what should seem the pastures had to keep alive from the small dews and the moisture in the atmosphere, a severe drought.”
On 9 August 1818, Josiah notes that “the summer of 1818 may be said to have been warm and dry, summer of 1817 cold and moist, summer of 1816 cold and dry”.
On 6 August 1819, Josiah records “For three or four summers past I have been paying more attention to those white clouds which float at a great height in the atmosphere, I have termed them colts’ tails or herringbone from their faint resemblance to them. Last evening at about sunset I observed several clouds of the above-mentioned kind in the west they were between 10 and 20° in height above the horizon.”
Read the Report: 1816 — “The year Without a Summer” — near New Paltz. November 1984. Daniel Smiley.
