The sun is going quiet.. Again…
2018 has already had its up’s and down’s. Only 20 days old in 2018 and we have had two major snowstorms ( a third on the way jaxon) flooding, ice jams, mudslides and that just the weather headlines in the U.S.. We have also had three small sunspot grouping.( Ar2694,Ar2695, and Ar2696)
What do all of these groupings have in common? Well, besides the fact that all three groupings have been weak and small, but none of them were formed at the far eastern limb of the sun. All of them sort of popped up at the last minute. Ar2696 is the longest lasting sunspot thus far of 2018. Now we are dealing with a minor G-1 geomagnetic storm today and early tomorrow. After that, our sun seems to be getting quieter for the foreseeable future as it is being predicted.
Which leads me to the next question. Would any of these groupings had been counted as sunpots say 20-30 years ago? And if not , then why now? Is this a way for TPTB to fudge the numbers so they can say that ” see, this isn’t the Grand Solar Minimum”. It seems that the global warming side still doesn’t want to acknowledge the cooling that we have seen in regions of the world. Or maybe all the floods and record snow fall is also part of global warming>>> (i hope you hear the sarcasm)
The point is, we better start making future plans about how to adapt in a colder climate. Mari and myself had a very constructive conversation with Kate ( the Radical Gardener on youtube) We spoke about how to grow food and what kind of foods to eat to survive and thrive in The Grand Solar Minimum. We talked about how important it is to be self reliant and to have a plan for alternative heating and so on.
It is being predicted for much of the lower 48 will experience another shot of arctic air to arrive between February 3 – 5. It is also being said that this cold air will be here through out February into mid to late march. Some regions of the U.S. are expected to be well below average temperature wise till mid may! This is only the beginning of the suns slumber and slumber it will…
J Riley