[elcid1970]

I thought the coldest & longest winter ever recorded (1816?) was the result of a volcanic eruption spewing ash into the atmosphere which blocked incoming sunlight.

Can’t blame Old Sol for that.

[small farm girl]

Yes, that was "the year without a summer" for New England anyway and was caused by the eruption of Tambora. It snowed in July here (NE) and there are quite a few farmer's journals that recorded their experiences. During this same event, Byron challenged his friends to story writing and we got Frankenstein and The Vampyre out of it!!! So cool (literally).
The Thames was frozen repeatedly between the 1600-1840s-ish.
Winthrop and Bradford write about some extreme weather- severe winters, deep snow cover when they needed to be planting, late and early frosts, extreme heat and drought, prolonged cold rain that killed the cattle on pasture, etc. They thought our NE climate would be like England...joke was on them. Turns out white European men ARE to blame for climate change! LOL