It's Too Quiet

A favorite line from B movies of yore was a character in a jungle movie observing ominously, "I don't like it. It's too quiet." This chestnut was spoken moments before all hell broke loose - the headhunters, lions or Japanese attacked, the marabunta swarmed, the volcano erupted, or the dam broke.

It could easily be the headline of a Los Angeles Times Science Now section reporting an almost total lack of sunspot activity. See what they write:

A few weeks ago it was teeming with sunspots, as you would expect since we are supposed to be in the middle of solar maximum -- the time in the sun's 11-year cycle when it is the most active. But now, there is hardly a sunspot in sight.

This is the weakest solar maximum to have been observed in the space age, and it is shaking out to be the weakest one in the past 100 years.

Don't give away your long underwear. A lack of sunspots is associated, historically, with global cooling. Another Little Ice Age is looking slightly more possible than formerly. Hat tip to Drudge Report for the link.