The Year Without a Summer
In 1816 summer never came, and a stormy holiday on Lake Geneva gave the world Frankenstein.
What was reported
In 1816, much of the Northern Hemisphere had a summer of frost, snow and cold rain. Crops failed in New England and western Europe, food prices soared, and there was famine and unrest. In some places snow fell in June.
At the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Lord Byron and his guests, including Mary Shelley and John Polidori, were kept indoors by storms and challenged each other to write ghost stories. Mary Shelley began Frankenstein, and Polidori wrote The Vampyre.
Explanations offered
The cold followed the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April 1815, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. Its sulphur formed a haze high in the atmosphere that reflected sunlight and cooled the planet for more than a year.
- When
- 1816
- Where
- Villa Diodati, Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland
- Witnesses
- People across Europe and North America
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.