Volcanic Winter of 536

The volcanic winter of 536 was one of the most severe and prolonged episodes of climatic cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last two thousand years, triggered by at least one large volcanic eruption, of disputed origin, that injected sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere in late 535 or early 536. Contemporary observers in Constantinople described the sun losing its brightness and a persistent dry fog, and summer temperatures in 536 fell as much as 2.5 degrees Celsius below the European norm, with snow reported falling in August in China. The resulting crop failures and famine, compounding with the Plague of Justinian that struck beginning in 541, caused millions of deaths and ushered in the Late Antique Little Ice Age, a cold period that persisted from 536 to about 660.