How Weather Changed History

A startled, ghostly figure stands and screams beneath a swirling, fire-red sky. Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream is one of the most iconic images from art. Its haunting sky was a real meteorological phenomenon. In 1883, the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa (Krakatu) spewed ash into the atmosphere. Dust and ash in the stratosphere interfered with sunlight and created dramatic sunsets as far away as Northern Europe and the United States one of which was depicted in The Scream.