A first observation to be made is that the summer's rainfall pattern was the opposite of what is predicted by all climate models to result from the global warming associated with enhanced greenhouse gases. The model predictions are for warmer and drier Irish summers, with this trend being particularly marked in the east and southeast. Must we conclude from this lack of agreement between the predicted and observed rainfall that global warming isn't really occurring, or that the model predictions of the consequences of global warming are misleading?
Last week's bulletin mentioned an announcement coming on Tuesday this week from NASA. It concerned data from the Ulysses spacecraft, indicating solar wind pressure is declining. The speed of solar wind hasn't changed much, but the density and temperature are lower.
The consequences for Earth are enormous. The lack of increased activity could signal the start of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event that occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century. It leads to extended periods of severe cooling such as what happened during the Little Ice Age.
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