Quieter activity on Sun may push Britain into a modern-day Little Ice Age

Daily Mail

"Having just emerged from a bitterly cold winter the experts are warning that Britain could return to the mini ice-age at the end of the 17th century. This is despite claims that global warming is causing Arctic ice to melt and temperatures to rise. ....Professor Mike Lockwood started the investigation after he realised the past two cold British winters had coincided with a particularly quiet period in the Sun's activity.He was helped in his research by colleagues at Reading University, along with scientists at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire and the Max Planck Institute in Germany.The team studied British weather records back to 1659. These were then compared with solar activity over the same period.Solar activity is indicated by the strength of the solar magnetic field, which extends to Earth where it causes small fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field.Reliable measurements of the Sun’s magnetic field are only available from 1900 onwards, so researchers used computer simulations for further back in time.The statistical comparisons clearly showed that after decades of high solar activity and comparably mild winters, low solar activity and severe winters had become more common in Europe again."