If Pinatubo was the only large eruption to have been followed by severe and life-endangering drought, that might not be enough to draw clear conclusions. But it fits neatly into a larger pattern. Alan Robock, a leading expert on the effect of volcanoes on climate, points in particular to two other eruptions—Iceland’s Laki in 1783 and Alaska’s Mount Katmai in 1912. Both were sufficiently powerful to send a high volume of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere and, like Pinatubo, it turns out that both were followed by a series of terrible, or badly worsening regional droughts.
