Russ Steele
In studying grand minimum climate change I have been watching for the unusual freeze events, both in late spring and early fall and indicators of the coming weather changes resulting from a much quieter Sun. But some times the event creep much slowly, initially as just colder days, that become colder weeks and eventually months. We do not really notice, it is just weather, until years go by and the change becomes the normal.
Here is an example of a monthly change reported by P. Gosselin at the No Tricks Zone:
Sweden Records One Of Its Coldest and Wettest June Months Since Records Began In 1786
The English language Swedish online news site The Local.se/ reports on how the weather in Sweden has been so far during the month of June: wet & cold.
According to the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), temperatures have been well below average in June, at just 13.3 degrees Celsius. Normal is 15.2°C.
On June 2, the temperature in Stockholm rose only to 6°C, the coldest high in 84 years, read more here. Earlier in the month one town recorded a temperature of 6°C below zero – the coldest June temperature in Sweden in 20 years. Snow even blanketed parts of northern Sweden.
Normally in the month of June, the mercury rises to 25°C or more on just days 5 days on average. This June the mercury never reached that mark. In fact it didn’t even reach the 22°C mark. The high temperature for June in Stockholm was only 21.6°C. This is only the second time the temperature has failed to reach 25°C in June in 92 years.
This only becomes significant if the trend continues for several years in a row, and even more so if it continues for 20 plus years, with some variation above and below the trend line. The climate change associated with grand minimums comes slowly on little paws, with some violent swipes outside the norm to remind us that change is happening. We will know it happened, when the little fellow in the picture above comes to bash down the door.
The Next Grand Minimum 
Well said. It comes on Little Paws.
I noticed here in Ireland that the Winter of 09/10 killed the palm trees in the gardens around us. The ones that survived where killed by the next Winter for good. This 10/11 Winter was the coldest in 130 years. Last Winter was quite mild as the weather front kept the cold from the east at bay. However, the winter was severe and caused big problems for some countries in the east like Romania and Bulgaria. Even the Black Sea was frozen http://englishrussia.com/2012/02/02/the-black-sea-got-frozen/
The last three month where I live were cold and wet and we had to heat the house even in June. First time in the 18 years I live here.
I know that a few years can’t tell the future, as I’ve seen the cold years in Germany in the 60s/70s.
One thing that I think is clear. A little or real ice age will come, considering the ice core data. Our Planet is in general a cold place and we are just lucky to have it warmer.
I hope it stays warmer as man kind can’t deal with a colder Planet. Everything will break down. People will freeze and starve. Can you imagine a big big city in a chaos like that.
In Search Of The Coming Ice Age http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvsAIyUAGyY
Juergen,
Thanks for the first hand report. I hope that more readers can contribute their experiences as well.
No problem Russ.
I’m quite interested in the ‘real’ facts and information and I watch nature to see what it can tell me.
Russ,
I think the swing or variability in temperatures may tell you more than just what a few cold spots are doing. I realize that during the cold PDO we see much more north-south meandering in the jet stream. This leads to both unusual heat as well as cold. depending on where one is in the flow. I don’t know how a weak solar cycle may mitigate or amplify the north south meandering but if you think about the late season frosts after a warm conclusion to winter (like what happenned in the upper midwest), the uncharacteristically warm followed by uncharacteristically cold may be the real mechanism of devastation. I would bet in the fruit orchard regions of the upper midwest that we have already had an unsually warm year, even though cold did the fruit crops in. So don’t just look at averages, the average deviation from normal, hot and cold, could be just as important.
Another example of weather variability (a late frost) doing in fruit crop, this time the Netherlands.
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=98115