As the weather scramble is on I browsed around and found that most say we are in for a hot and dry summer and many predict a really prolonged Indian Summer. Then you start seeing the input from scientist who track the historical influence of the sun and solar cycles. Way past my pay grade but a lot is emerging about the sun spot cycle. A snippet of one below and here is a link.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/16...rmest-Year-Ever Climate forecasters say that 2015 could be the warmest year ever, Raw Story Reports. The study, presented at the National Academy of Sciences Monday, built on other work to show that we have a 76% chance of an El Nino event happening sometime later this year. The potential consequence, combined with the phenomena of man-made global warming, could be the warmest year on record since we started keeping track back in the 1800's.
Although they occur in the equatorial tropical Pacific Ocean, the effects of El Niño events can reverberate around the globe, wreaking havoc with typical weather patterns. El Niños increase the likelihood for California to be pummeled by Pacific storm systems, for example, while leaving eastern Australia at greater risk of drought. Because they are characterized by higher than average sea surface temperatures in the equatorial tropical Pacific Ocean, and they add heat to the atmosphere, El Niño events also tend to boost global average temperatures.
By acting in concert with manmade greenhouse gases, which are also warming the planet, calendar years featuring a strong El Niño event, such as 1998, can more easily set all-time high temperature records.
So instead of the extreme drought that is affecting California right now, we could see them getting extreme rain next year. In the light of these forecasts, it is irresponsible of our politicians to cut back on funding for long-range weather research. Our research needs to be expanded and improved so that we can better understand the weather patterns of this planet.
Larry Bell, writing in Forbes, claims that we are on a path to global cooling. He quotes a Russian scientist as follows:
But if you thought global warming was scary, here’s an alternative to consider. Some really smart scientists predict that Planet Earth is now entering a very deep and prolonged cooling period attributable to 100-year record low numbers of sunspots. Periods of reduced sunspot activity correlate with increased cloud-forming influences of cosmic rays. More clouds tend to make conditions cooler, while fewer often cause warming.
Dr. Habibullo Abdussamatov who heads Russia’s prestigious Pulkovo Observatory in St. Petersburg predicts that: “after the maximum of solar Cycle-24, from approximately 2014, we can expect the start of the next bicentennial cycle of deep cooling with a Little Ice Age in 2055 plus or minus 11 years” (the 19th to occur in the past 7,500 years).
Dr. Abdussamatov points out that Earth has experienced such occurrences five times over the last 1,000 years, and that: “A global freeze will come about regardless of whether or not industrialized countries put a cap on their greenhouse gas emissions. The common view of Man’s industrial activity is a deciding factor in global warming has emerged from a misinterpretation of cause and effect.”
While solar output typically goes through 11-year cycles with high numbers of sunspots seen at their peak, we are currently approaching the peak of “Cycle-24” with numbers running at less than half of those observed during other 20th century peaks.
Also the solar geeks such as this guy
http://solarcycle24com.proboards.com/thread/2305/astromets-climate-forecast-winter-2014 are a interesting read. Thing about it is I would write him off as nut case but then you find mainstream scientist starting to come his way little at a time. One thing about it will be interesting. As I am a old goat I will likely miss most of what is coming (dead/out of here) but you young guys are going to have a interesting time I think.