http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html
Sunspot days - chart posted yesterday
reading down, you can see that, for example, in 2009, there were 260 days! with NO sunspots!
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 0 days
2011 total: 1 day (2%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
Since 2004: 820 days
Typical Solar Min: 486 days
Updated 18 Feb 2011
We had a long stretch of spotless days in the Solar Minimum cycle and are now, going to Maunder Maximum, getting our spots back...we had 5 today.We've only had one ‘spotless day” this year. That's one in 2 months.
This winter may be Solar Minimum's last hurrah for a decade - that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
We’re not headed for a solar maximum.
The uptick in sunspots was several years late. This rise IS heading to the next maximum, finally. However, the peak in the cycle will be fairly low, and of shorter duration. (Based on past cycles with an extended low.) I think the Maunder Minimum had three of these low cycles strung together.
Of course, based on the cycles, we are also in the longest inter-glacial warm period so far. So it wouldn’t surprise me if instead of a “minimum”, we drop off into a full-blown ice age.