Record cold temperatures this morning (it got down to 8° this morning in Indy, smashing a record of 11° for this date set way back in the 1950’s) probably have less to do with “global climate change” than they do with “deep solar minimum”.
At solar minimum, not only do we have a spotless or near-spotless sun, the so-called “solar constant” drops off, along with the amount of insolation (the amount of solar radiation reaching a given area) we get.
This (along with some other related factors, like an increase in the amount of cosmic rays that reach earth, which in turn leads to an increase in clouds, thus more rain and even less solar insolation) makes it colder. Surprise, the sun controls temperature and climate on Earth to a really significant extent — more than mankind can ever hope to do on its own. Even big volcanoes look at mankind’s puny pollution and laugh.
And we are currently in a really, really deep solar minimum, with predictions for the next solar maximum indicating it is not likely we’ll reach even the level of the past solar maximum.
Any surprise that it’s getting really cold and that this is predicted to be a colder than normal winter in the Midwest simply reminds me of the dippy on-location newscaster during this year’s “Great American Eclipse”, who, when the sun went behind the moon, exclaimed, “Wow, it just got really chilly, and the wind picked up.”
Yeah, that’s what happens when you turn off the sun. It gets cold really quick.
Can anyone say “Maunder Minimum”?
And then there’s this, via Instapundit: Al Gore Promotes Global Warming Workshop as Arctic Blast is Set to Bring Record Cold Temps to US 40 Days Before Winter Season Begins. Some days, I can’t even. And this is one of those days.
#inwx