Cold Snap Prediction
April 1st, 2007A cold snap is predicted for the east coast later this week and weekend. From
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/pmdepd.html
CONTD SIG AGRICULTURAL THREAT TO MID ATLC PEACH
CROP WITH LOW TEMPS IN THE 20S
The last such damage occured in 1985, a much colder year according to this data: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/anomalies/
monthly.land_and_ocean.90S.90N.df_1901-2000mean.dat
1985 was also a low sunspot number year although on the downslope and not the trough like this year. Joe D’Aleo predicted a climate shift based on the lower peak in 2000:
QUIETER, LONGER SOLAR CYCLE NUMBER 23 COULD SIGNAL SIGNIFICANT CLIMATE SHIFT Looking at the data in the ftp link above, his prediction might be wrong or just premature. But I don’t think it’s coincidental that this late season cold is corresponding to low or nonexistant sunspots. Perhaps some phenomenon related to the sunspots allows polar air to filter down with less moderation such as cloud increases caused by diminishing solar magnetic field. It’s possible that this could affect the weather without a significant effect on the climate since the effect might not be global or uniform.