STORM2K

Is there a correlation between the lack of sunspots in the past year and the unstable weather conditions throughout the country and perhaps the world? In 2004, Florida got hit hard with hurricanes and the sunspot activity was at a 6 Millenia high and since then the sunspot activity has dwindled to zero and has been zero for many months now.

Is Global Cooling beginning? Alaska is on record for the coldest summer on record. The Midwest has been hit with floods from stronger than usual cold fronts late into Spring and Summer combined with Gulf of Mexico moisture. In late July the Northwest is already getting cold fronts strong enough to bring record lows, perhaps an early winter is beginning. Florida is having an unsually cool summer so far due to the cold fronts reaching down this far.

Things I have read in regards to no sunspot activity could equal an new ice age and the changes in cooler temperatures could also mean an increase in earthquakes and volcanoes becoming active.

Does this make any sense???

Thank you Storm2K for having this thread to ask questions.

At the moment it's not likely that the current low level of Solar activity due to the minimum of cycle 23 has been going on long enough to have any major effects upon the weather or climate. What IS going has been a major ENSO cold phase event (La Niña) and a persistent and strong PDO (Pacific Decadal Oscillation) cold phase which have been complimenting each other with the patterns resulting from their SST anomalies leading to the weather we have been experiencing. The enhanced hurricane activity particularly in 2004/5 but in general since 1995 has been mostly due to a warm phase of the AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation). The AMO strongly modulates the frequency and to some degree the intensity of Atlantic hurricanes and, because of an inverse relationship, to some extent the EPAC seasonal activity as well. It would take a fairly extended period (decadal in length) of severely reduced sunspot activity to severely impact the climate negatively. However, the current PDO phase along with other oscillations could in all likelihood interrupt for a time the current climate warming since, despite claims to the contrary, natural variations still make up a major part of any climate change pattern.

Steve