Solar Activity Is At A 100 Year Low: Are You Prepared For A Bitterly Cold Winter?Michael Snyder There have been other periods throughout history when solar activity has been extraordinarily quiet, and those times have corresponded with periods of extreme cold. For example, the Maunder Minimum which stretched from 1645 to 1715 corresponded with the most bitterly cold period that the earth experienced in the last 1000 years. So could we be heading toward another mini-ice age? That is a question that some scientists are now beginning to ask. Clearly, something unusual is happening with our sun. The following is from a Universe Today article that was posted back in July Our nearest star has exhibited some schizophrenic behavior thus far for 2013. Thus far though, Solar Cycle #24 has been off to a sputtering start, and researchers that attended the meeting of the American Astronomical Societys Solar Physics Division earlier this month are divided as to why.Not only is this the smallest cycle weve seen in the space age, its the smallest cycle in 100 years, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center research scientist David Hathaway said during a recent press teleconference conducted by the Marshall Space Flight Center. The Sun is acting weird. It typically puts on a pageant of magnetic activity every 11 years for aurora watchers and sungazers alike, but this time it overslept. When it finally woke up (a year late), it gave the weakest performance in 100 years. The good news is that this kind of thing has happened before. The bad news is that when solar activity slows down dramatically it tends to correspond with extremely cold weather asthe Times of India recently explained Predictions that 2013 would see an upsurge in solar activity and geomagnetic storms disrupting power grids and communications systems have proved to be a false alarm. Instead, the current peak in the solar cycle is the weakest for a century. Subdued solar activity has prompted controversial comparisons with the Maunder Minimum, which occurred between 1645 and 1715, when a prolonged absence of sunspots and other indicators of solar activity coincided with the coldest period in the last millennium. Certainly solar activity is just one of the factors that influences our weather and many other factors are involved as well. But it is undeniable that during the last Little Ice Age in Europe therewere very few sunspots Times of depressed solar activityseem to correspond with times of global cold. For example, during the 70-year period from 1645 to 1715, few, if any, sunspots were seen, even during expected sunspot maximums. Western Europe entered a climate period known as the Maunder Minimum or Little Ice Age. Temperatures dropped by 1.8 to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. And the lull in solar activity that we are experiencing now is causing many, including the Old Farmers Almanac, to project that we have a bitterly cold winter ahead of us The Farmers Almanac is using words like piercing cold, bitterly cold and biting cold to describe the upcoming winter. And if its predictions are right, the first outdoor Super Bowl in years will be a messy Storm Bowl. The 197-year-old publication that hits newsstands Monday predicts a winter storm will hit the Northeast around the time the Super Bowl is played at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands in New Jersey. It also predicts a colder-than-normal winter for two-thirds of the country and heavy snowfall in the Midwest, Great Lakes and New England. That doesnt sound very fun. So has the Old Farmers Almanac been accurate in the past? According to their website, they claim an 80 percent accuracy rate The Old Farmers Almanac, first published in 1792 during the first term of George Washington, has always watched the weather. Our famous long-range weather forecasts are traditionally 80 percentaccurate. We will see what happens this year. For North America, the Almanac is predicting that we will see below-normal temperatures and above-normal snowfall According to the newest edition of North Americas oldest continuously published periodical, a decline in solar activity combined with ocean-atmosphere patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic will result in below-normal temperatures and above-normal snowfall during most of the winter across much of the United States. This winter is shaping up to be a rough one, says Janice Stillman, editor of The Old Farmers Almanac. Sweaters and snow shovels should be unpacked early and kept close by throughout the season. The good news is that the extra precipitationwhich will fall as rain or snow depending where you arewill help with any drought issues left over from the summer. So if you like winter weather, it looks like this will be a good year for you. For the rest of us, we will just have to wear lots of warm clothing and stay inside a lot. But of course the much bigger story is what this could mean for the years ahead. Are we now moving into a time similar to the Maunder Minimum when solar activity will be very low and global temperatures will decrease? Could it be possible that Matthew Penn of the National Solar Observatory and others are correct and that we are heading into a new mini-ice age? Lets certainly hope not, but without a doubt something very strange is happening to our sun. Only time will tell what that means for our future. About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled The Beginning Of The End is now available on Amazon.com. 