At http://notrickszone.com/2013/09/26/bastardis-jungs-initial-winter-specul… … which illustrates how bad news spreads rapidly. In this instance, a forecast of another cold winter. However, out there in mobile phone land and the blogosphere there are a lot of people that associate the current low sunspot activity with very cool winters – the kind that were the norm in the 17th century (for example). In other words, instead of global warming there are people doomsaying by saying we are on the verge of another Little Ice Age. That was a period when the 'average' temperature was somewhat lower than it is nowadays – and within that temperature box there were a few years that had cool summers (and others that had summers with heat waves, as described by Pepys). Very cold winters followed by cool summers are normally associated with low growth tree ring events. These are caused by volcanoes and heavy meteor activity, creating a lot of dust in the upper atmosphere which reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the surface. We can safely assume such a winter is not in the offing – unless Comet Ison does something spectacular. We have, on the other hand, entered into the cool phase of the 60 year solar cycle (30 years of warmth followed by 30 years of not so much warmth). This is why the latest IPCC report focuses on warming from 1951 – which was near the beginning of the last cooling phase of the cycle. Obviously, climate scientists are able to say it has been warming for the last 60 years because it has been warming – but not disastrously so. If they had begun their chart in the 1930s no warming would have shown up – as temperatures in the 1930s were somewhat like the 1990s. Its all jiggery pokery – as they say.
Pierre Gosselin traces back the doomsaying about a killer winter to Joe Bastardi who suggested a winter along the lines of those enjoyed by old timers in the 1950s. Nothing about a killer winter – that was hyped up later.