Re: “Can anyone boil this down to what we can expect as a result?”
With just three “opposite” polarity sunspots, it’s too soon to predict if the next Solar Cycle has started.
The Cycle we are currently in has had a very low number of sunspots, and, if this cycle ends now, I think it will be the shortest solar cycle ever recorded.
The author and a number of other solar experts have noted a close similarity between today’s sun and the sun that existed at the beginning of the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715), which was a 70 year period of almost no sunspots, and very low Earth temperatures.
Other solar experts point out that technology and solar knowledge was so limited in 1645 that trying to compare that period with 2018 is impossible.
During the Maunder Minimum in 1645, Earth temperatures went down dramatically, causing events like the Thames River to completely freeze over in the winter.
Prediction?
I’m hoping for a Maunder Minimum just so the Global Warming fanatics shut up for a couple minutes, which, of course, they will never do. They will just claim that the Maunder Minimum is “concealing” man made warming.
On the other hand, a new freezing cold Maunder Minimum would almost certainly cause significant human suffering, so it is not something that men of high character should wish for.
Here is my prediction.
Since I believe we will not come out of this century before Christ returns and is crowned King of the Earth in Jerusalem, and since in the 3.5 years before that, the sun will become so hot it will “scorch men” (Rev. 16:8), maybe there will be a sudden, unexpected flurry of sun spots relatively soon.
You haven't heard? They are acknowledging the cooling and are saying it will "slow the growth of global warming". I kid you not.