Solar Cycle 24 Could Be 13 Years Long - Cooler Times Ahead? ｫ Watts Up With That? has some interesting observations. Apparently there's a number of different solar activity cycles - the standard 11 year, a 22, a 53 year cycle, 88, 106, 213, and 429. When the cycles coincide, you get some pretty significant temperature drops.
Solar Cycle 23 should have been about 11 years long. (That time is from trough to trough as far as sunspot numbers go. When the number of sunspots bottoms out and starts going up, the new cycle starts.) Right now, it looks like it might be 13. The longer the solar cycle, the cooler things get.
And there have been some pretty significant temperate drops in May. Here at home, we only turned on our air conditioning at the end of May. My brother reports very heavy snows still on the mountains around Yakima, WA, and recently an icebreaker got stuck trying to show ecotourists the ice was gone.
An icebreaker. Stuck. In ice. That wasn't supposed to be there.
When you get the cycles together - temps drop. So far, it looks like the planet's taken a .774°C drop since January of '07 - the last peak. The temp's had a .195°C drop between April and May.
Looks like some cold times are coming. What do you want to bet the Global Warming shills will be in full cry trying to get us to dismantle the economy?
If it comes down to global cooling versus global warming - I'll take the warming.
There's a lot of factors that play into the global warming/climate change foolishness - but one that seems to be totally ignored is solar input. The Sun isn't a 100 watt heat lamp that's always the same temperature output - it varies. And right now - it's very quiet.
Wonder if I still have my nomex long underwear somewhere?
J.