The Year Without Summer

1816-The Year Without A Summer. Sounds a bit like the movie Frozen to me. It didn't snow year-round but the temperatures were quite chilly. 1816 didn't start out cold but there were frosts in May and farmers were getting worried. Farming was what gave Vermonters their food. Farmers weren't the only ones with farming skills as blacksmiths, millers and others depended on farming. Even ministers were given fields to farm as part of their pay. Although there were frosts, some planted anyways thinking it would warm up. On June 5, a heatwave struck and spirits rose. But the heat was short-lived because a northern cold front struck. When the cold, dry air from Canada met the warm, moist air of New England, thunderstorms were created and it rained. The temperature dropped and so did the farmers' hopes. Temperatures in northern Vermont and the mountains dropped to freezing temperatures and the rain changed to heavy flakes of wet snow. On June 8, 1816 six inches of snow fell upon Vermont. By June 10, the town of Craftsbury had a foot of snow.

The snow soon melted but there were many frosts throughout July and August. Vermonters had to buy corn from farmers in New Hampshire and traded maple sugar for fish at Swanton. Some even survived by eating hedgehogs, clover tops and green nettles. The failure of corn didn't just cause starvation for Vermonters for that year but for the next as well because there would be no seed crop for 1817 and seed corn was too expensive for them to buy. Many Vermonters had had enough and left, wanting to try their luck out west. Some did stay though, as they were determined to make it through.

Chilly temperatures didn't just happen in Vermont but all over the country and even in Europe. The memory of "eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death" was in many people's minds and whenever there was a late spring or June hailstorm, they were always prepared for the worst.

Sources: http://vermonthistory.org/images/stories/articles/greenmountaineer/theyearwithout.pdf
http://history1800s.about.com/od/crimesanddisasters/a/The-Year-Without-A-Summer.htm