Cold summer of 1816

• The year of 1816 was one of the coldest ever known

in New England. It was referred to as the "poverty year" as many crops were affected. In Salem on June 8th, there was a slight fall of snow, but it was not deep enough to go sleighing.

• In the "Annals of Salem" by Felt, he writes that in 1816

there was frost and ice until June 10th and there was only three warm days in the whole month.

• Scientist would come to the conclusion that the cold weather that summer was the

result of a large volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora in the Dutch West Indies.

See Also

• Annals of Salem by Joseph B. Felt, vol.2, p.106
• Historic Storms of New England by Sidney Perley, p.204
• Disasters that made history by Webb Garrison, p.16-20.