Little Ice Ages

In about the year 1000, Norseman sailed west from Iceland seeking milder climates, new refuges, adventure, and no doubt, excitement. A mini-ice age had settled across northern Europe and the region of Iceland and Greenland. Hearty adventurers sought new lands and found themselves in North America...traveling its water ways and following its coasts.

In the 1880's this was termed the "Maunder minima" by solar astronomer, Edward W. Maunder. It was thought to explain the drop in sun spot activity between 1645 and 1715 that resulted in a change in climate. In the 1970's a solar physicist Jack Eddy searched records, historical data, and various reports to conclude that periods of minimal sun spot activity strangely coincided with these "little ice ages". [Bothamley, Jennifer. Dictionary of Theories, 2002]

A more recent (2004) study uses modeling and suggests that sun spot activity has been at a high for about 8,000 years. The jury is still out, however, and causative aspects are still in dispute. [NASA image]

What about the theory of sunsports being related to paranormal activity? That the apparitions reported are in response to variations in the Earth's electronmagnetic fields due to increased, or at least changing, sunspot activity? If the sun spots decrease, and there is a corresponding decrease in reported paranormal activities, at least one theory may be verified. If they, however, do not change or even increase..... There may be reasons other than global climate changes to get a wary eye on the sunspots and the temperature.