I have NEVER seen Sol as “quiet”, “featureless”, whatever you wish to label it, as it has been during the past month.I illustrate my point with the following picture, today's "Magnetogram", which reveals the magnetic features on the Sun. Even during the 52-day spotless period last year, I don't recall the magnetogram being as blank as the past week. Usually, there is something or other that is visible even when Sol is spotless. This just looks like a gray plate with a little salt and pepper on it.
About 2 months ago, there were strong thoughts that Sol was “waking up” and Cycle24 would start to pick up. I considered that likely. The last 2 weeks I have gone from questioning what is going on to seriously concerned about the lack of activity. NOT ONE PERSON ALIVE TODAY has been aware of a period of quietude similar to this current minimum. It is increasingly likely every day that goes by with Sun in such a quiet state, that it is more quiet than it has been in several hundred years. It is NOT understood, but such quiet states have been highly correlated with COLD temperatures on Earth.
Sol SHOULD be ramping up in activity right now, and rapidly. Every solar scientist thinks that ought to be true. If it does not do so very soon, there are going to be a whole load of scientists going back to the drawing board to reconsider the data and the hypotheses.