The objective of the meeting was, by bringing together workers in various fields (e.g., volcanologists, glaciologists, climatologists, tree-ring experts, geographers, historians and biologists) from various countries, to gain the clearest picture possible of weather and climatic sequences in different parts of the world during 1816, or about that time (e.g., 1810-20), in an effort to discover key factors influencing the unusual weather then. Intended to discuss historical climate (particularly that of the Little Ice Age) and its human impact; relationships between volcanism and climate; and the ways paleoclimatic proxy data are gathered, treated and interpreted.