Poor Chile has had its share of troubles. They just had a volcano erupt a few weeks ago, Villarica, I think. Here is a great site with lots of volcano pictures, starting with Calbuco, and then Villarica, don’t know about the rest.
About our recent cold northern winters, it might be Iceland volcanoes, but some say it’s changes in air currents caused by more open water in the Arctic Ocean. Do you have any data on volume of airborne particles from recent Iceland volcano activity?