[catarac]

This was an exciting coronal mass ejection . Much of the now well known global cooling has been the result of no flares or even sun spots. We have had 83 solar flux and the most sun spots in months (43) and are well on are way in solar cycle 24!! The ice age is less likely but polar caps will continue to expand for awhile.

[winoneforthegipper]

I can see the impact on a global scale, that which we call solar weather, however, in my estimation the prevailing winds were and are a more direct reason for the large melt we seen in this past decade. Now how much of that is influenced by Sol, you got me....lol!

[Steamburg]

Remember 43 is a magnitude. Today it is 26. On the traditional scale, anything less than 15 is not even considered a sunspot. Also, this is less than half the common score at most times in a solar cycle. The excitement is that we have been out of spots for almost twice the normal solar minimum [Spotless Days: 2009 total: 259 days (73%)
Since 2004: 770 days Typical Solar Min: 485 days]. A couple of sunspots does not a warming trend make. It is very enlightening to go to the site and look at the long term history of sunspots in relation to global temperatures. The correlation and lag time is impressive.

[justa-hairyape]

..and the most sun spots in months (43) and are well on are way in solar cycle 24!!

Not according to NOAA. We had a sunspot numbers of 63 back in March 2008, according to them. We are currently on the longest streak of days with spots though, in quite a while. Which tells us cycle 24 is active, but the activity level is low to very low at present. That beats just very low to none, however.