a.k.a. V.J.

Because I am a history nerd, I have a tendency to liken current events to some historical precedent. Because I am a modern-day American, living in 2023, I am prone to catastrophize and think of the present moment in apocalyptic, end-times, “this is the worst thing ever!” terms. Therefore, since this wildfire-induced haze engulfed my part of the country the past couple days, I naturally stated thinking about the “volcanic winter” of 536 A.D.

From Wikipedia:

In 2018, medieval scholar Michael McCormick nominated 536 as “the worst year to be alive” because of the extreme weather events probably caused by a volcanic eruption early in the year, causing average temperatures in Europe and China to decline and resulting in crop failures and famine for well over a year. Other researchers have noted additional adverse events during the year, including a mysterious fog, possibly due to the volcanic eruption.

Hyperbole aside, this weather event is mostly just depressing and a little eerie. I wore a KN95 mask to work today, and when I got there, the Syracuse skyline was like a faint watermark of itself in the background.

As I write this in the evening, the air quality is noticeably better than it was around midday. It should start raining any time now, which will knock a lot of the offending particles down to the ground. So, it looks like 536 A.D. will keep its Worst Year to Be Alive crown for now, but we’ve still got six months left to close the gap.