Volcanic winter of 536
A dimmed sun opens the coldest decade in 2,000 years
Throughout 536 the sun shone dimly, 'like the moon', wrote Procopius; snow fell in summer and crops failed from Europe to China. Tree rings mark it as the start of the coldest decade in 2,000 years, blamed on volcanic eruptions.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 6th century
Did you know
536 is called one of the worst years to be alive: volcanic haze dimmed the sun across the Northern Hemisphere, and five years later the Plague of Justinian began.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Middle East
- 529–534 Code of Justinian — 7 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Justinian I (aged 54)
- Aryabhata (aged 60)
- Theodora (aged 36)
- Khosrow I (aged 35)