Russ Steele
The Union this morning has an article on the impact California's weather extremes are having on agriculture: Weather extremes buffet area farmers
A family friend recently remarked that "we are going back to the weather use used to have." Well yes, we have been experiencing a warm Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) for thirty years. Now we are in a cool phase PDO which may last for another thirty years. We had a cool phase in the 40s, 50s and 60s and early seventies, with shift coming in 1977. The exact date then the current cool phase took place is still being debated, but the serious cooling started in January 2007.
California is not the only State impacted by weather extremes as you can see from these record events from Fri Dec 12, 2008 through Thu Dec 18, 2008 (From An Honest Climate Debate)
Rainfall: 952
Snowfall: 768
High Temperatures: 241
Low Temperatures: 326
Lowest Max Temperatures: 1154
Highest Min Temperatures: 292
In addition to a PDO shift, the sun remains quiet with the number of sunspotless days reaching 18 so far in December, we have now exceeded 1912 as the 2nd quietest sun year since 1900. Only 1913 ranked higher with 311 days.
Chart from Joseph D’Aleo at Icecap Joe Notes that 2007 was also in the top ten.
