The debate rages on concerning the prolonged period of solar inactivity. And some are now turning attention to Maunder instead of Dalton, because it appears that sunspots may actually do a complete disappearing act. 10.7 flux, gauss and the sunspot number are on a death spiral still.
Heater sales are brisk and there is no debating the recent cold, snowy winters, but a Maunder level in the next decades would be far more serious than just needing more roof and gutter or pipe heating cable. The coldest part of the Little Ice Age at the end of the 17th century coincided with an almost total lack of sunspots lasting 70 years named the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715). Others were the 90-year interval which named the Sporer Minimum (1460-1550), smaller minima also coincided with cooler conditions in Europe including Oort (1010-1050), Wolf (1280-1350) and Dalton (1790-1830).
There is also no debating that there is mounting evidence that we are entering another Little Ice Age caused by the lack of solar activity. We will wait to see how the world responds and handles this potentially devastating situation. Here at Mor Electric Heating, our focus is on heaters and we have our own little challenge in that area of the response to the weather.
We will find more places to stock heaters and more phone lines to take your calls for help!