We're hearing all kinds of reasons for the cold snap and severe weather globally, with the result that the global-warming thesis is being raked over the coals, so to speak. But is anyone discussing the Icelandic volcanic eruption of last year as the cause? It seems as if most of the world has forgotten the eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, "which, although relatively small for volcanic eruptions, caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over an initial period of six days in April 2010."
If history is an example, it is quite possible that this season's arctic freeze in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as other weather patterns such as the cyclone in Australia, are results mainly of this recent volcanic event on Iceland. Indeed, this phenomenon is common enough to have a name, "volcanic winter."
Historic cases of volcanic winter
The following examples of volcanically induced weather disruptions come from the Wikipedia article "Volcanic Winter." Oddly enough, Wiki makes no mention of this past year's event and its possible role in this season's cold snap.
The extreme weather events of 535–536 are most likely linked to a volcanic eruption.
The Great Famine of 1315–1317 in Europe may have been precipitated by a volcanic event, perhaps that of Kaharoa, New Zealand, which lasted about five years.
In 1452 or 1453, a cataclysmic eruption of the submarine volcano Kuwae caused worldwide disruptions.
In 1600, the Huaynaputina in Peru erupted. Tree ring studies show that 1601 was cold. Russia had its worst famine in 1601 to 1603. From 1600 to 1602, Switzerland, Latvia and Estonia had exceptionally cold winters. The wine harvest was late in 1601 in France, and in Peru and Germany wine production collapsed. Peach trees bloomed late in China, and Lake Suwa in Japan froze early.
A paper written by Benjamin Franklin in 1783 blamed the unusually cool summer of 1783 on volcanic dust coming from Iceland, where the eruption of Laki volcano had released enormous amounts of sulfur dioxide, resulting in the death of much of the island's livestock and a catastrophic famine which killed a quarter of the population. Temperatures in the northern hemisphere dropped by about 1 °C in the year following the Laki eruption.
The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, a stratovolcano in Indonesia, occasioned mid-summer frosts in New York State and June snowfalls in New England and Newfoundland and Labrador in what came to be known as the "Year Without a Summer" of 1816.
In 1883, the explosion of Krakatoa (Krakatau) also created volcanic winter-like conditions. The next four years after the explosion were unusually cold, and the winter of 1887 to 1888 included powerful blizzards. Record snowfalls were recorded worldwide.
Most recently, the 1991 explosion of Mount Pinatubo, another stratovolcano in the Philippines, cooled global temperatures for about 2–3 years.
As we can see, there is sound scientific reason to question whether or not what we are currently experiencing in many parts of the world is a volcanic winter resulting from the eruptions in April 2010 of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland.
Further Reading
2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull
Comments
Despite the fact that I regularly watched the Twilight Zone as a kid, there's only one episode of Twilight Zone show that I remember. To this day I can actually (feel) myself watching it. It went something like this:
A family was in their house thinking that the world was ending because they were sweating and burning up from the sun's heat.They knew it was the end of the world.
But the TV audience learns that the characters were really sleeping and only dreaming about the heat.That's because one of the characters awakens from his sleep and discovers that because of a (real) sub zero iciness, everyone around him had froze to death.
The world's people were really freezing to death. They were dreaming for heat while they were freezing in their sleep.
God bless everyone and Rod Serling. The sight of that guy introducing each show left an permanent imprint on my mind. He was a thought provoker.
I thank Ms Murdock for raising the question; what affect has the volcanic erupton in Iceland 2010 had on the weather". But she has not (all due respects to Wiki) provided sufficient evidence to claim that there is "scientific reason to question ..... is a volcanic winter ...."
From media information the recent cyclone in Australia is a not unusual result of the La Nina weather pattern. Has the volcanic winter could have affected conditions so as to make it more intense? Who knows?
It is disappointing that such a outstanding researcher and author has not given us more information on the possible climate effects of volcanic eruptions.
Volcanoes are not something we can easily turn off but understanding the effect of a single eruption we may better understand how the climate can change can occur so quickly and so dramatically, not by massive change but just by change that upsets the balance..
Thank you. I'm not sure why it is "disappointing" that I merely raised a perfectly valid question. I did not set out to write an exhaustive scientific analysis in this short essay. If one is inspired, one may do the research oneself.
In the meantime, I see no reason why the question should not be asked, and the study of volcanic winters does not originate or rest with Wikipedia, obviously. The idea originally came to me while watching a program on the History Channel, if I recall correctly. I'm certain there are plenty of other resources one may investigate as well.
Volcanic activity at high latitiudes such as Iceland have little effect on local climate and none on worldwide climate.
Only volcanic activity at low lattitudes can have that sort of impact due to the mixing effect - air tumbles from the ITCZ to the poles (spreading the ash)
What about the Gulf disaster this has played havoc with the Gulf stream.
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