We are at the verge of entering solar cycle 24

To the Editor:

Worldwide temperatures have fallen significantly during January. According to weather stations and sea surface temperature measurements, January 2008 global temperature was down 1.35 degrees Fahrenheit from the same month in 2007. (NASA GISS)

According to NASA data, it was the coldest January since 1989.

In January, Hong Kong was gripped with the second longest cold spell since 1885. Winter storms in central and southern China produced the worst winter weather in half a century. Snow fell on Baghdad for the first time in living memory.

Iran experienced the heaviest snowfall in decades. Bitter cold, snowstorms and avalanches killed at least 654 people in Afghanistan this winter along with 100,000 cattle. There have been severe shortages of gas and heating in Uzbekistan aggravating the coldest winter weather experienced by that nation in years.

One of the main drivers in natural climate change is the intensity of the sun's magnetic field wrapped within the solar winds. Currently the sun magnetically has gone quiet, really quiet.

We are at the verge of entering solar cycle 24. It will be interesting to watch this solar cycle as it unfolds.

James A. Marusek

Bloomfield