![]() ![]() Historians have speculated that the severity of these two cold winters and the crop failures and livestock losses that accompanied them, only helped accelerate the pace of emigration to North America at this time. Certainly, the snowy winters of 1783-85 were two of the coldest Scottish winters of recent centuries. ![]() The eruption of Mt Tambora in Indonesia during April 1815 is a famous example, often referred to as “the year without a summer”.įrom the perspective of past climate in Scotland, scientists have long debated whether the succession of cold winters that followed were a direct result of the Laki volcanic eruptions. In effect, a very dilute form of sulphuric acid was circulating across the lower part of the Earth’s atmosphere during the summer of 1783 and it proved very difficult to shift.Ĭlimate scientists have long known that major volcanic eruptions often emit enormous volumes of volcanic ash into the atmosphere and have the effect of blocking the Sun’s radiation and cooling the Earth’s climate. These gas compounds were then transported by prevailing winds across northern and central Europe. The sulphur that was released into the Earth’s atmosphere reacted with moisture in the air to produce sulphate aerosols. The Laki eruption threw columns of smoke and ash between nine and 13 kilometres into the atmosphere, with individual eruptions of flood lava taking place along a very large fissure in the Earth’s crust and continuing for almost nine months. Alastair Dawson, Author provided Impact on weather The weather noted in the estate diary of Gordon Castle in November 1783, six months after the Laki eruption in Iceland. In our research we unearthed several undiscovered diaries and daily weather records for Scotland to reconstruct the patterns of weather and climate change that took place both before, during and following the eruption of the Laki volcano. Until now, apart from the Scots Magazine report a month after the eruption, the only published report was a brief reference from nearly a century ago of volcanic ash having fallen across parts of Caithness in 1783. What was always puzzling was that there was virtually no information known for Scotland during this time. Throughout the summer, reports were widespread from many countries of thousands of people dying from respiratory illnesses. Famines recorded as far away as Egypt and Japan have been attributed to Laki, while it has even been claimed that crop failures in Europe contributed to the outbreak of the French Revolution.īy the middle of July the choking haze had enveloped most of Europe. Later, 1783 came to be known in Gaelic as Bliadhne nan Sneachda Bhuidhe or “the year of the yellow snow”. ![]() News did not reach Scotland for several weeks, when the first brief account was published in the July issue of The Scots Magazine. For comparison, the eruptions of 1783 were ten times the size of Iceland’s 2010 volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, which resulted in an aviation shutdown across Europe. ![]() It not only released large volumes of volcanic ash into the atmosphere but also enormous amounts of sulphur dioxide aerosols – over 120 megatons according to some estimates. As the world learned later, it was probably one of the largest outpourings of lava in the past 1,000 years, spewing out 42 billion tonnes of molten rock. What these people didn’t know was that on June 8, there had been a huge volcanic eruption at Laki in Iceland. In Aberdeenshire, Janet Burnet was recording in her farming diary how the leaves of her crops were withering and turning yellow, while on the estate of Henry, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch near Edinburgh, daily weather conditions were being measured with a thermometer, barometer and rain gauge. At Gordon Castle in Morayshire, similar descriptions appear in an estate diary. Across Scotland, others were describing similar patterns of weather. ![]()
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