The Year New Bedford Got 6 Inches of Snow on June 6

Take a minute and paint a mental picture of the first week of June.  You're probably thinking about driving into work, hugged by bright sunshine and warmer temperatures.  Your spirits are up because of the nice weather.  Your windows are down, and Fun 107 is blasting out of your speakers.

But what if I told you that it actually snowed one year on June 6?  It's 100% true.  The year was 1816, and it would later be known as "The Year Without a Summer."

Imagine living here on the SouthCoast and seeing the snow begin to fall early in the morning.  By the time the sun set that day, there were 6 inches of snow on Union Street.

ABC 6 Meteorologist Skylar Spinler offered us some explanations about how this could be possible.  "First of all, temperatures in general were cooler back in the early 1800's.  It was before the industrial revolution.  That period between the 1400's and the mid 1800's were a couple of degrees cooler than now.  It doesn't sound like much, but it's a significant difference."

Spinler also told us about a major volcanic eruption happening in Indonesia that year.  The ashes from Mount Tambora were seen in the sky right here in New England.  Spinler says that volcanic eruptions tend to have an effect on weather, and it is very likely that this was the case back in 1816.

Incredibly, Spinler says there was a hard frost, under 28 degrees, EVERY month in the year 1816--including June, July and August!  This cold weather in the middle of summer wreaked havoc for farmers in New England, causing many of them to give up and travel west.

We just experienced a year without a winter.  I'm sure most of us here on the SouthCoast would rather have that than a year without a summer,

Bottom line?  When the weather gets a little cold and raw (like it was last weekend) just remember, at least we're not getting snowstorms in June.