Cold waves that bring unexpected freezes and frosts during the growing season in mid-latitude zones can kill plants during the early and most vulnerable stages of growth , resulting in crop failure as plants are killed before they can be harvested economically . Such cold waves have caused famines . At times as deadly to plants as drought , cold waves can leave a land in danger of later brush and forest fires that consume dead biomass . One extreme was the so-called Year Without a Summer of 1816 , one of several years during the 1810s in which numerous crops failed during freakish summer cold snaps after volcanic eruptions that reduced incoming sunlight
Year Without a Summer
Year Without a Summer
Cold wave