“...low solar activity can contribute to cold winters in the UK, northern Europe and parts of America. But high activity from the sun has the opposite effect...”
Astounding!
Not.
It goes to more than this. The solar wind is driven by sunspots. A lack of sunspots, low solar wind, will let more cosmic rays hit our atmosphere. Several scientists (including CERN most recently) have proven this leads to increased cloud formation, and thus lower temps. This is what lead to the Little Ice Age.