The castastrophe story of the day

It was dark in New England on May 17, 1780...even Geo Washington noted a problem in his diary.

Nearly 230 years later, MU researchers combined written accounts and fire scar evidence to determine that the dark day was caused by massive wildfires burning in Canada...The researchers studied tree rings from the Algonquin Highlands of southern Ontario and many other locations. They found that a major fire had burned in 1780 affecting atmospheric conditions hundred of miles away.....

"This study was a unique opportunity to take historical accounts and combine them with modern technology and the physical historical evidence from the tree rings and solve a mystery with science," McMurry said.

The Freepers have comments including this link.

I remember the year NewMexico burnt down...we had fires north and south of us, and smoky/dimness outside. But the fires were only 20 miles away, not 200...