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The year without a summer

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The 1815 eruption of Tambora caused an unusually cold summer in much of Europe in 1816. The extreme weather led to poor harvests and malnutrition, but also demonstrated the capability of humans to adapt and help others in worse conditions.

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Figure 1: Climate anomalies with respect to the 1951–1980 period in 1816.
Figure 2: Climate and societal interactions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. J. Luterbacher is in the Department of Geography, Climatology, Climate Dynamics and Climate Change, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Senckenbergstrasse 1, D-35390 Giessen, Germany,

    J. Luterbacher

  2. C. Pfister is at the Oeschger Centre for Climatic Change Research (OCCR), Falkenplatz 16, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland,

    C. Pfister

Authors
  1. J. Luterbacher
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  2. C. Pfister
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Correspondence to J. Luterbacher.

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Luterbacher, J., Pfister, C. The year without a summer. Nature Geosci 8, 246–248 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2404

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