Volcanic Winter of 536 and Onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age
- Date
- 536–537 CE
- Category
- Environment & climate
- Region
- Global (Northern Hemisphere; Europe, Middle East, Asia, Americas)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
In early 536 CE a massive volcanic eruption—most likely in Iceland, though North American sources have also been proposed—injected vast quantities of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, creating a dense dust veil that dimmed the sun across the Northern Hemisphere for roughly 18 months.
Contemporary writers such as the Byzantine historian Procopius and the Roman statesman Cassiodorus described a sun that gave light without brightness, a "bluish" feeble sun, and a year with a winter without storms, a spring without mildness, and a summer without heat. Summer temperatures in Europe fell by as much as 2.5 °C, snow reportedly fell in summer in China, and crop failures and famine struck Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with severe mortality recorded in regions such as Guanzhong in China. Further eruptions around 540 and 547 deepened and prolonged the cooling, initiating the Late Antique Little Ice Age (c. 536–660 CE), the coldest stretch of the past two millennia. Compounded by the Plague of Justinian (from 541), the disaster contributed to demographic collapse, mass migrations, and the destabilisation of the Eastern Roman and Sasanian empires while indirectly aiding later Arab expansion, leading historian Michael McCormick to call 536 "the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year."
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Empires active in 536–537 CE
- Sassanid Empire224 CE – 651 CE
- Kingdom of Funan50 CE – 550 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Kingdom of Aksum100 CE – 940 CE
- Hephthalite Empire440 CE – 560 CE
- Classic Maya Civilization250 CE – 900 CE
Related environment & climate events
- Eldgjá Eruption in Iceland939-940 CE
- The Medieval Warm Period (Medieval Climate Anomaly)c. 950–1250 CE
- The 1257 Samalas Eruption (Mount Rinjani, Lombok)1257 CE
- The Great Famine devastates northern Europe1315–1317 CE
- Kuwae Eruption (Vanuatu)c. 1452 CE
- Eruption of Vesuvius buries Pompeii and Herculaneum79 CE (traditionally 24 August)
Further reading
The wider story
A New Green History of the World
The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.
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