Possible 'Little Ice Age' for Ireland could last 11 years as sun cools

That is great seagreen! Glad to know you are on the job. EphraimKibbey gives a very good description of what's happening, though it is very dire.

So, as I understand it, Global Warming predicts the melting of Greenland's land based glacier, increasing sea levels and dumping fresh water into the North Atlantic just where the cooler ocean temperatures and salinity normally cause surface water to sink, driving the Gulf stream. The resulting decrease in salinity will decrease the volume of sinking water in the North Atlantic and weaken the Gulf Stream which normally brings warmer water and its associated warmer weather to Ireland, the UK, Scandinavia and Western Europe. This will result in colder temperatures there. Now we learn that the Sun is going through a minimum in sunspot activity which means reduced radiation and colder temperatures reinforced by volcanic activity which is predicted to increase as we approach the plane of our galaxy and it's increased gravitational pull. While we recognise that all of these forces are in play, the question seems to be - will the latter be in time and of long enough duration to counter act Global Warming or will they all combine to imitate the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" and bring about another Little Ice Age? I'm guessing that between the economy, the politicians and the weather, we are all in for some more scary times. Now all we need is a pole reversal to really mess up civilization.

Let's get the bumper stickers out!!! SKI Roscommon!

Searlit, At the moment we ar sitting just below Cape Farewell, Greenland, on a survey. Will be out for another two weeks. Weather wise, only standing on our heads once a week or so.

Lucky I hung on to the auld fake fur coat, our winter here in Ireland was bad, being out in the country our water well froze, we have a couple of big tubs and had to swing the pick axe, 8 inchs of ice before we got the water. The odd tractor was the only motoring on country roads, but this survey has not mentioned what our summers will be like. Seagreen mentions the colder waters, but then why are more dolphin and whales traveling to our shores, other sealife have been spotted that are usually in warmer waters.

My, oh my, and all this talk about man made global warming must be just that TALK. Who would have thought that the sun and other natural phenomena, i.e. volcanoes and wild fires are the real causes of changes in weather patterns. Maybe now we can get back to a normal life and forget all of the restrictions governments have been trying to burden us with.

Umm, we had a very cold winter in my location in the US. Our temps this summer have been around average! I live in Ohio. Global waming, huh?

I think "seagreen" has the real answer. The waters off the northern Euro coasts are colder due to the melting Artic fresh water. Check out the above ave. temps in the US and other much larger countries.

Thats bad enough then in the summer it rains just twice a week once for 3 days and then for 4 days.

@ seagreen, how's the weather up North, I think you're past the 45th paralell. It's not as hot here in CT as it usually is this time of year. I think the low solar activity is a gift from God to give us more time to switch to renewable energy. Must be beautiful up in the mountains, now.

WHAT ABOUT AL GORE'S GLOBAL WARMING????

Its about fragmentation of the Gulf Stream by fresh water that is changing the salinity, and weakening the distribution of warmer water along the Irish, Scottish, and Norwegian coasts...

It will be cold this coming winter in ireland and England,as usual.It's Winter folks.

It will be cold in Ireland and England this winter.....as usual.It's winter folks.

I think Al Gore and the rest of the NeoCons are going to pay you a visit. We could see a "big freeze" on Irish Central.