Russ Steele
The sun went spotless yesterday, something that has not happened for a while. Details here. I started writing about the return of a Dalton like Grand Minimum in December of 2006, creating The Dalton Minimum Returns blog, which is dedicated to tracking the return of the next Grand Minimum.
David Archibald, and Austrailian scientist was one of the major contributors to my Dalton Minimum Returns paper. David has since written a book The Past and Future of Climate -- Why the world is cooling and why carbon dioxide won't make a detectable difference.
Anthony Watts writing at Watts Up With That has updated the charts and graphics, which David used in his book to make the case for a Dalton Minimum Repeat. [Book not avaialbe in US book stores]
What will another Grand Minimum mean for California? Colder and dryer climate if history is an indicator. We know from the Lewis and Clark weather records the mid west was on average 4 degrees cooler in the winter of 1804 -1805, and the Corp of Discovery spent the winter of 1805-1806 on the coast of Oregon under intense cloud cover and almost continious rain. However, examining the California Mission records, and tree ring records from the period, 1795 to 1825, we know that California experienced drought conditions from 1794 - 1795, 1805 - 1813 and 1821 - 1825. There was a strong El Niño in 1815 - 1816 producing very wet conditions.
During the drought years, the California Missions experienced some crop failures due to the shorter growing seasons. While drought was a problem in some areas, the Mission farms used primitive irrigation systems bring water from the rivers and streams to the fields. To compensate for the shorter growing season, the Mission farmers planted oats which matured earlier than wheat, but had less success with corn, which had smaller ears and fewer kernels.
Speculation on the impact these cooler dry conditions might have on California agriculture over the next 20-30 years will be covered in some future posts.
Exit Question: What will CARB do when California climate does not follow their dodgy climate models and we continue cool?
