Dear Tom,
The “year without a summer” followed the 1815 eruption of Indonesia’s Mt. Tambora. Now, Mt. Rainier is supposed to be the United States’ most dangerous volcano. How much cooling might we expect when it erupts?
R. Walker, Chicago
Dear R.,
Dust and gases hurled into the atmosphere by Mt. Tambora blocked sunlight and lowered global temperatures for a few years after its 1815 eruption. However, global cooling is not believed to be among the hazards posed by Mt. Rainier, located 55 miles southeast of Seattle, Wash.
Rainier is a violent, unstable volcano capped by more glacial ice than any other U.S. volcano, and it threatens hundreds of thousands of people. Non-eruptive avalanches and flooding are ongoing threats, as well as the obvious hazards posed by an actual eruption.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
