Posted: Sunday, Dec 21, 2008 - 09:01:22 pm PST
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Cliff Harris

The next 'Little Ice Age' may have already begun!

The total amount of ice and snow as of mid-December 2008 in the Northern Hemisphere was the most on record since December 1913, almost a century ago.

Coincidentally, that was the last time that we experienced a month like we saw last August with absolutely no sunspot activity. We've only seen sporadic episodes of sunspots in the past several months. The sun has been abnormally quiet overall.

Several top observatories around the world, which have been measuring solar activity for more than 200 years, are predicting that "global temperatures will continue to drop by as much as two or three degrees in the next two decades or so between now and about 2030."

The National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, has recently predicted that "sunspot activity will all but vanish by 2015."

Since the sun is the principle driver of climate changes, both warmer and cooler cycles, a total lack of sunspots would probably herald a repeat of the Maunder Minimum climate cycle, the name given from 1645 to 1715, when sunspots became exceedingly rare.

This was the onset of the so-called Little Ice Age that didn't end until about 1850. Europe, Asia and North America were hit by numerous bitterly cold and often snowy winters. The Thames River in London completely froze over. So thick was the ice that elephants were able to walk across the river. Winter fairs were regularly held on the Thames.

It's possible, due to the fact that it's been at least 11,500 years since the last period previous to the Little Ice Age with such low sunspot activity, that we could see a major Ice Age develop sometime in the next 20 years. We're overdue, folks, for such a frigid occurrence.

For more details, read "Not By Fire, But By Ice," written by my friend Robert W. Felix, who spoke at our global warming seminar in early March 2007 at the beautiful Coeur d'Alene Resort.

Bob says, "The next big ice age could begin any day! It could happen this next week, next month or next year. It's not the case of if, only when we'll be buried by up to nine stories of snow!

"The climate of Greenland will descend upon Canada, Britain, Norway, much of northern Europe, northern Asia and at least two-thirds of the North American Continent," according to Mr. Felix.

Will Bob be right? Only time will tell.

Bob's book can be purchased by calling (800) 310-1764, Pin No. 9761. His Web address is www.iceagenow.com.

North Idaho long-range outlook and weather review

I'm writing this weather update during the early afternoon hours of a beautiful, but extremely cold, Saturday, the last full day of the snowiest fall season on recorded history in Coeur d'Alene dating back to at least the inception of local weather record-keeping in 1895. It was a bone-chilling 5 degrees above zero at noon. Later, we saw the mercury climb to 7 degrees at 1:30 p.m., but this was still 4 degrees below the previous lowest maximum reading for Dec. 20 of 11 degrees in 1924.

Our autumn of 2008 snowfall total, as of noon on Saturday, stood at an incredible 43.3 inches on Player Drive, which included the all-time record big dump of the white stuff of 37.3 inches, which fell over a record non-stop 52-hour span stretching from 5:30 a.m. Wednesday to 9:30 a.m. Friday.

The previous snowiest fall in recorded history in Coeur d'Alene occurred nearly a century ago in 1922. That particular autumn season gauged 33.3 inches of snow, exactly 10 inches less than the whopping snow total of this fall.

December 1922 also measured 24.4 inches of snow in a 44-hour storm from Dec. 9 through Dec. 11, the second most snowfall in a single non-stop period on record. In third place is the 47-hour snowstorm of Dec. 27 through Dec. 29, 1992. Nearly 21 inches fell in that blizzard. I remember it well. I had to have my roof shoveled off twice during the extremely snowy winter of 1992-93.

Yes, folks, the snowiest month on record remains January 1969 with an almost unbelievable 82.4 inches gauged in town. Near the end of the month, the snow depths in Dalton Gardens, for example, exceeded 5 feet on level ground, more than at anytime during the snowiest winter season ever from end-to-end in 2007-08, which had, from July 1 through June 30, an amazing 172.9 inches.

The top five snowiest winter seasons on record in Coeur d'Alene since 1895 are:

1. 2007-08: 172.9 inches.

2. 1915-16: 124.4 inches.

3. 1968-69: 117.8 inches.

4. 1949-50: 116.6 inches.

5. 1992-93: 113.7 inches.

Will our snowiest autumn on record lead to the snowiest winter season ever across North Idaho? I doubt it.

Remember, I've said for many months now that most of this winter's snow would fall between Dec. 10 and six weeks later on Jan. 21. With another 40 inches or so likely in the next 30 days in town, that would push our seasonal total to near 85 inches by the end of the third week of January. Our normal snowfall for an entire season is 66.7 inches.

If we receive approximately our normal of 35 additional inches of snow between Jan. 21 and June 30, we should end up with nearly 120 inches of the white stuff by June 30. That would put us in third place behind last year and the snowy 1915-16 season and just ahead of 1968-69.

Only time will tell. But at least one thing's for certain. In terms of total snow on the ground this Dec. 25, it will.