As Steve noted a little while ago, the Northern states have been in a deep freeze for a while now. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that northern Minnesota hasn’t had a six-day stretch colder than the one the state has just suffered through since the Nixon administration, 1972. From December 6 through 11, the temperature in Duluth averaged 6 degrees. The Brainerd Dispatch went farther back in history to find the record coldest six-day stretch in December. If you’re curious, it was 1927, when for six days in Brainerd, the average temperature was 7.5 degrees below zero.
Of course, that’s just weather. But many scientists are growing increasingly concerned about the prospect of a long-term chill. The Earth has barely emerged from the Little Ice Age, and already solar activity is diminishing to an alarmingly low level. At Watts Up With That, Dr. Leif Svalgaard says, “None of us alive have ever seen such a weak cycle.” Here is the graph:
Inform the Pundits! amplifies:
The monthly International Sunspot Number from the Solar Information Data Center (SIDC) of the Royal Observatory of Belgium was released December 1st. It fell to 77.6 spots/day.
Most newsworthy is that this is still the weakest solar max in over 200 years, well below NASA’s forecast. …
We may be witnessing the sun’s last dying gasps before entering into a long slumber. The impact of that slumber on Earth’s climate remains the subject of growing scientific speculation.
Very soon, we may all be praying for a little global warming.