polar vortex cold snap ice age
© NOAANorth American temperatures on December 10, 2016
"It seems something can not be hidden longer..." says Italian geologist Dr Mirco Poletto.

"On 'Il meteo', an Italian weather forecast website, they continue talking about solar minimum and cooling," says Dr Poletto. "The funny thing: they say the sun is "unusually" weak, showing no knowledge about long term solar cycles. Going on in the article, however, they mention Maunder minimum, the little ice age, and other cold periods."

..............

Here's my (Robert's) attempt to paraphrase the Italian website:

The Sun appears unusually tired, because sunspots on its surface are not visible and seems destined to remain rather low for the next days. This continues a trend since the beginning of 2018, because there have already been 108 days this year without stains (without sunspots). That makes us reflect, because all of 2017 had only 110 "spotless" days ( without stains ).

Should we be concerned? Well, scholars say there is a close correlation between solar activity and our climate, and an "off" sun could have quite negative repercussions. This is not a fantasy, as it has happened in the past.

Between 1645 and 1715 our planet lived through what was called the " Maunder minimum ", named after Eward Maunder , a British astronomer. During the Maunder minimum the average global temperature dropped by 1.5 ยฐ C , and it was precisely in those years that Europe endured the harshest winters in memory. In 1709 the port of Genoa froze , the Venetian lagoon turned into a single slab of ice. The consequences were catastrophic, with heavy snowfall in the winter and abnormally cool summers that completely overturned the agricultural activities and breeding .

At present there are no conditions for the return to a " Little Ice Age ", but climatologists say that we could return to a period similar to that experienced in the 60s of nine hundred (I don't know what that means), with average global temperatures below current levels.

The implications for Italy may be immediate. There are increasing possibilities of a rather cool and rainy autumn , especially in the northern regions and parts of the central ones, while the South could enjoy a prolonged summer, at least during the month of October. The winter could then present greater snowfall and cold, a bit as happened in the 60s and 70s of the 900, years, in which the activity of the sun was less, just like now.


Comment: Principia Scientifica corrects the translation:
The original Italian was 'โ€‹anni 60 del Novecento'. It was translated as 'the 60s of the 900' This caused confusion amongst bloggers. What the Italian actually means is 'the 60s of the 20th century' or, to put it more succinctly 'the 1960s'. Similarly later on in the article the correct translation of 'anni 60 e 70 del 900, anni' is not '60s and 70s of the 900 years' It is 'the 1960s and 1970s'. (H/T: Simon Clanmorris)

The climate could be at a really crucial crossroads over the next few years. Big changes seem to be waiting for us, and we could all be witnesses to something very unusual.

Thanks to Dr Mirco Poletto for this link