Earth May Begin to Cool in Response to a Drop-off in Solar Activity, an Increase in Volcanic Eruptions and the Cooling of Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures

The second climate driver in the Triple Crown of Cooling is the longest solar minimum in 100 years, which we exited in May 2009. This continued stretch of weak solar activity lasted 12.7 years, compared to the 11-year average (it was a historically inactive period in terms of sunspot numbers). If the low levels of solar activity during the past three years (2006 - 2009) continue through the current solar cycle (Solar Cycle 24), which is expected to peak in 2013, we could be facing a severe temperature decline within the next five to eight years (2010 - 2018) as Earth’s climate begins to respond to the drop-off in solar activity. - Triple Crown of Global Cooling Could Trigger Widespread Food Shortages and Famine

Cooling Climate: Winters are Getting Colder Across Ohio and the U.S.

Winters in the United States have gotten colder over the last 10 years. The reasons: a cooler Pacific Ocean (the cold phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation), a weak solar cycle and volcanic activity.

July 6, 2011

NewsNet5.com - The numbers don't lie. The observations don't lie. Winters in Ohio and the United States have gotten colder over the last 10 years. But you sensed that anyway, didn't you? (Especially after this last long, cold winter!)

Meteorologist & colleague Joe D'Aleo, from the website ICECAP.us, took a look at the winter statistics from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). What he found was startling. Since late 2001, the winter months of December, January and February have gotten colder at the second fastest 10-year rate since the late 1800s. On average, all nine official climate regions of the US have seen a wintertime temperature drop of 4.13 degrees F.


Ohio is part of the six-state Central Climate Region. That includes Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. In this region, our temperatures have declined an impressive 5.82 degrees F since the winter of 2001/2002.


The largest decline was seen in the Northern Plains and the Western Great Lakes, where cold-season temperatures have plummeted up to 8.74 degrees F on average over the last 10 winters.

The snow pack across the Northern Hemisphere has also increased during this chilly period. This passed winter produced the third greatest snow extent (in square km) for the Northern Hemisphere since 1967. It finished behind only the winter of 2009/10 and 1977/78 and just ahead of the winter of 2007/08.

The reasons?

"Clearly, natural factors really can pack a punch," said Dr. Joe D'Aleo.

He sited a cooler Pacific Ocean (the cold phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation), a weak solar cycle and volcanic activity as the causes of the cooling.

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