The Year Without a Summer

You have likely heard parts of this story before, and it makes sense 
to me that this could have been a contributing to the cliche itself ~ 
"It was a dark and stormy night".  

Originally penned by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 
1st Baron Lytton as the beginning of his 1830 novel "Paul Clifford". 

[Other phrases from the Baron Lytton's works ~ 
"The pen is mightier than the sword" ~ coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton 
in 1839 for his play "Richelieu", or "The Conspiracy"
Also from his works ~ "the great unwashed" and "pursuit of the almighty dollar"] 

Remember in the comic strip 'Peanuts, 
Snoopy always started the novel he was typing, (on a real mechanical typewriter), 
with the line 'It was a dark and stormy night, or some variation. 

Other worldwide effects from the climate change starting 1815 for the next few years ~

Switzerland, 1816 
More Grass for You, Sir? 
The famine was so serious that the Swiss government declared a state of emergency. 
It also issued information on how to distinguish poisonous plants from edible ones 
to prevent people from indiscriminately consuming any plant that they found. 
During the “Year without Summer”, the starving Swiss people resorted to eating moss. 

Lake Geneva, Switzerland, 1816 
A Horror of a Summer 
English author Mary Shelley, while vacationing at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, 
was inspired by the miserable weather to write the classic Gothic novel Frankenstein. 
Holidaying at the same cabin as Mary Shelley in 1816, John Polidori wrote the novel 
The Vampyre, which later inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 

France, 1816 
Bubbly No More 
The grapes in the Champagne district of Verdun froze in the cold summer and never 
ripened. Vineyards across France suffered a similar fate. Only a few grapes ripened 
in the autumn months. The 1816 grape harvest of France was practically non-existent 
due to the cold summer. 

Ireland, May-September 1816 
Rain, Rain Go Away 
Ireland experienced persistent cold rain for 142 of the 153 summer days. 
These moist conditions were later blamed for the European typhus epidemic of 1816-1819. 
Ireland suffered her first ever famine in the “Year without Summer”, when the cold weather 
destroyed her wheat, oat and potato crops. 

Hungary, January 1816 
Brown Snow? 
In January 1816, a blizzard of brown snow hit Hungary. Described as “flesh-coloured”, 
the snow’s unusual colour was the result of mixing with the volcanic dust from 
Mount Tambora. In the spring of 1816, Hungary and Italy experienced brown and 
yellow snow respectively. 

Britain, Autumn 1815 
Red, Red Sun 
Sulphur aerosols resulting from Mount Tambora’s eruption scattered the red wavelengths 
of sunlight. English artist J.M.W. Turner, “the painter of light”, observed brilliantly 
red sunrises and sunsets in the autumn of 1815 and used them as inspiration for his 
paintings. In response to the food shortage caused by the “Year without Summer”, 
the British government abolished income taxes in 1816. 

Germany, 1816 
A Cheaper Ride 
The famine inflated grain prices. In an attempt to develop horseless transportation, 
thereby saving on the cost of oats to feed the animals, German aristocrat Karl Drais 
invented the draisine, a predecessor of the bicycle. Starving Germans baked straw and 
sawdust to eat as “bread” in the “Year without Summer”.