Paper short abstract:

The 1783 Laki eruption caused extreme weather, such as a lasting dry fog, for most of Europe. Contemporaries speculated about the origin. Reconstructing the debate from newspapers: For a few weeks contemporaries believed two volcanic eruptions in the German territories caused the peculiar weather.

Paper long abstract:

The Icelandic Laki fissure eruption of 1783 had far-reaching effects: Its volcanic gases travelled to Europe and caused many weather extremes above Europe, such as a heat wave, an unusual frequency of thunderstorms, blood red sunsets and sunrises, but most notably it produced a dry fog with a sulphuric odour that reduced visibility and lasted for two months. News about an Icelandic volcanic eruption, however, only reached Europe after the fog had vanished again, so the contemporaries were left alone to speculate about the cause of the awe-inspiring weather. There were many competing interpretations as to the fog's origin: Earthquakes in Italy, meteors, aurora borealis, or peat burning.

In July 1783 several German newspapers printed reports about a local volcano roaring back to life, suggesting it to be the source of the extraordinary weather in their region. This explained all the oddities such as the smell, the haze, the thunderous sounds, and leaves turning white. The reports were written on June 24th, approximately the time of the first appearance of the dry fog in the German territories on June 16th. It is fascinating the same explanation was used with two mountains of volcanic origin independently from one another: The Gleichberg near Hildburghausen and the Cottaberg near Dresden. The explanation was only upheld for a few short weeks before the newspapers retracted it again, after realizing the volcanoes did not actually erupt. A local volcano was used as a coping strategy to explain the very unusual weather phenomenon.