Early Canadian Weather Observers and the “Year Without a Summer”

Abstract

The unusual spring and summer weather of the year 1816 in central Canada is discussed using Canadian newspaper accounts together with manuscript records from early amateur weather observers. Many of the spectacular meteorological events of this year that are known to have affected the northeast United States have close parallels in central Canada. The available instrumental records suggest that the summer of 1816 in central Canada was colder than any that has been observed in more-recent times.