The Year Without a Summer – 1816 – struck the Eifel hard , bringing famine , floods and weather damage along with it . Snow was still lying on the ground into June . Hay was only harvested in September , and the grain only ripened in October . That same month came frost , and by early November , snow was falling once again . The next year , 1817 , the Eifel dwellers suffered under the lingering effects of the foregoing year ’s disastrous and unusual weather patterns . Common foodstuffs were not so common , and cost much more than usual . People were so hungry that they were eating livestock fodder and roots . The Prussian government helped ease the crisis by making available two million '' Thaler '' , and ensuring the poor their daily bread by buying up great quantities of grain from East Prussia
Year Without a Summer
Year Without a Summer
Salm, Germany