The United States’ government scientific organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), recently updated the forecast for the number of sunspots and, consequently, solar activity during the ongoing Solar Cycle 25 (SC25) and the upcoming Solar Cycle 26 (SC26). On average, a solar cycle lasts about eleven years, with a peak in solar activity lasting just over two years in the middle of this 11-year period. The current solar cycle began, according to NASA, with a solar minimum in December 2019 and is expected to continue until the end of 2030. We are currently in the peak of this cycle, which began around the turn of the year, earlier than expected. It is this heightened solar activity within an otherwise overall weak solar cycle that has resulted in spectacular auroras at unusually southern latitudes. The unusual auroras are due to cosmic radiation now penetrating deeper into our atmosphere due to the weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field, a consequence of the sun’s generally diminished activity. This creates stronger and new colors of auroras, visible even farther from the poles, where the magnetic field typically directs charged particles toward our atmosphere. Therefore, auroras are usually seen near the poles.

NOAA’s sunspot forecast is presented on the Space Weather Prediction Center’s website, which is operated in collaboration with the United States’ National Weather Service (NWS).

A Grand Solar Minimum Looms

NOAA’s forecast is as astonishing as it is alarming, as it indicates that NOAA’s scientists believe there will be very few or even no sunspots at all from December 2031 until at least December 2040, as far as the forecast extends. While it is a forecast (see table), it is highly noteworthy because it suggests not only an extremely and unusually low solar activity but also that SC26 is not expected to have an active phase at all. Normally, during the active phase, the sun has around 150-300 sunspots each month. The active phase was supposed to occur between August 2034 and October 2036, according to the research study “Predictions of solar activity cycles 25 and 26 using non-linear autoregressive exogenous neural networks” by Mirkan Y. Kalkan et al., published in the July issue of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. However, it appears that this active phase will not occur according to NOAA.

SUNSPOTS are a measure of solar activity. These images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory show the sun at solar minimum in December 2019 (left) and solar maximum in April 2014 (right). Many sunspots indicate an increased risk of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can disrupt satellites and electronics on Earth. The risk of this is greater during a weak solar cycle, which is currently ongoing, and the threat is most significant until 2026. After that, extreme weather will further worsen, including deadly thunderstorms and hail, as well as floods and landslides. The threat will also encompass cold weather leading to food shortages, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and even a potentially catastrophic pole shift. Photos: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Looking at NOAA’s updated forecast for this period, we can see that they predict 1 sunspot for August 2034. They also provide a margin of error for their estimate, stating that the number could range from 1 to 11 sunspots. The number of sunspots does not increase as usual toward the middle of the active period but instead gradually decreases in their forecast. In October 2036, they expect 0.1 sunspots, with the minimum again given as 0 and the maximum as 10.1.

ALARMING FORECAST for solar activity during the peak period of the next solar cycle 26. It is expected to occur between the autumn of 2034 and the autumn of 2036. Here we see the period from May 2035 to September 2036, where the forecast for the number of sunspots goes from 0.5 to 0.1, with a maximum of 10.5 per month expected. The forecast then drops to 0 in July 2040. What is remarkable is that they anticipate between 0 and 11 sunspots per month. For comparison, a strong solar cycle has around 300, and sometimes up to 400 sunspots per month during the peak of the cycle when activity is at its highest. A normal solar cycle has around 200 sunspots per month, and a weak one like SC24 and the current SC25 has 100–150. The weakest ever observed, SC5, over 200 years ago, had a maximum of around 100 sunspots per month. Here, NOAA predicts a maximum of 10–11. This will impact the Earth and the climate so extremely that we must go far back in history to catch a glimpse of how catastrophic it will be. Source & Table: SWPC/NOAA

Not only does NOAA state that Solar Cycle 26 will not have an active phase, but the forecast also shows that the expected number of sunspots remains at 0 from July 2040 and as far as the forecast extends, until December 2040.

Even the sun has its spots, as the English astronomer Thomas Harriot is said to have remarked. He is believed to be the first to have observed sunspots with a telescope in the year 1610. But now, it seems that time is out of joint – the sun’s activity has decreased significantly during the past solar cycles, and now NOAA predicts that the next solar cycle will have no sunspots at all. Such low solar activity has never been observed by astronomers, and thus, we are in completely uncharted territory regarding the severity of the ice age this will bring to Earth.

Therefore, NOAA predicts that a Grand Solar Minimum, or GSM, will occur in the 2030s, although this is not explicitly stated. Nya Tider has unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a response from NOAA. We seek both a comment from them regarding the GSM and confirmation that the forecast is indeed accurate. The question is whether the forecast has been projected this far into the future or if there has been an error in their presentation. However, the latter is unlikely because Nya Tider has been following NOAA’s forecasts for several years, and they typically mark “N/A” (Not Available) when they do not have a value, whether it pertains to data or forecasts. At the time of publication, Nya Tider had not yet received a response.

DESERT CITY WASHED AWAY on September 10th after unprecedented record rains and floods with subsequent flash floods so powerful that they obliterated about a quarter of all buildings in the city and nearly all infrastructure. The port city of Derna in eastern Libya had 90,000 residents. At our press deadline, 7,000 were reported dead, but the number is believed to be in the five digits as many tens of thousands are missing. Authorities have ordered the evacuation of the entire city. Extreme weather and cold will gradually devastate Earth’s infrastructure, such as bridges and power grids, as we will not be able to repair them in time. Villages, towns, and entire regions will be forced to be abandoned due to severe disasters, and in northern latitudes due to extreme cold and unmanageable snowfall. Photo: Free Libya via X @WxNB_/Nahel Belgherze

Europe in Deep Freeze In numerous articles and analyses in recent years, Nya Tider has emphasized research and data indicating that the sun influences Earth’s climate. Most recently, we did so in the analysis “It’s the Sun that Drives Earth’s Climate, Not Carbon Dioxide – Top Researchers Push Back Against Climate Lies” in Nya Tider, Week 35/2023. In that article, we also mentioned the world-leading solar researcher Valentina Zharkova, who was one of the first to raise the alarm about the Grand Solar Minimum. In her research paper “Modern Grand Solar Minimum will lead to terrestrial cooling,” published in August 2020 on the website of the United States’ National Institutes of Health (NIH), she made the following prediction:

The reason she specifies the end year as 2053 is that it is the likely end year for Solar Cycle 27, which will primarily occur during the 2040s. NOAA’s forecast, therefore, aligns completely with Zharkova’s warnings from many years ago.

DEVASTATING COLD prevailed during the Maunder Minimum, a cold period from 1645 to 1715. On this map, we can see the temperature difference in degrees Celsius between 1780, a year with normal solar activity, and 1680, which fell during this Grand Solar Minimum. We can observe that almost the entire world became colder than usual. Europe was severely affected by crop failures and subsequent mass famine. NASA states that with reduced solar activity, “Europe and North America went into a deep freeze.” This map provides an indication of what lies ahead, but it will be significantly worse. Map: NASA

A Grand Solar Minimum occurs approximately every 200 years, with the most recent one taking place during SC5 and SC6, lasting from 1798 to 1823 (see the solar activity diagram). Before that, 400 years ago, the Maunder Minimum occurred, which was a period of cold from 1645 to 1715. This period hit Europe particularly hard, with crop failures, famine, and mass deaths.

SOLAR ACTIVITY SINCE 1750. Here, we can see all solar cycles since observations began in 1750 with Solar Cycle 1 (SC1) up to the current Solar Cycle 25 (SC25), which started in December 2019. The years are indicated on the x-axis, and the number of sunspots, indicating solar activity, is shown on the y-axis. We can observe that the previous SC24 is the weakest since SC5, which occurred between April 1798 and August 1810. The ongoing SC25 has had a somewhat more active phase than predicted (red line and gray area) with a peak expected in the summer of 2025, but it is too early to determine its overall characteristics. NOAA is now warning of abnormal and extremely reduced solar activity during the upcoming SC26, which is expected to begin in early 2031. Source & Chart: SWPC/NOAA

NASA describes this cold period as follows:

“From 1650 to 1710, temperatures across much of the Northern Hemisphere plunged when the Sun entered a quiet phase now called the Maunder Minimum. During this period, very few sunspots were seen on the Sun’s surface, and the overall brightness of the Sun decreased slightly. Already in the midst of a colder-than-average period, the Little Ice Age, Europe and North America went into a deep freeze: alpine glaciers extended over valley farmland, sea ice crept south from the Arctic, and famous canals in the Netherlands froze regularly — events that are rare today.”

NASA states that Europe and North America went into a “deep freeze.” Low solar activity, as we have seen since the last Solar Cycle 24, is thus directly associated with devastating colder climates. SC24 lasted from December 2008 to December 2019, when climate alarmists began to seriously alarm the world’s populations about “human-induced global warming.” This is highly remarkable, as history clearly demonstrates the opposite, namely, devastating global cooling. However, the climate establishment and its bought researchers avoid acknowledging this fact at all costs.

In the next 30 years, global warming will be the least of our concerns.
– Valentina Zharkova

NOAA’s forecast also indicates something even worse, what is sometimes called a Super Grand Solar Minimum, which occurs roughly every 2,000 years. These have a devastating impact on Earth’s magnetic field and, consequently, the climate, as they lead to severe natural disasters and cold. Subsequent food shortages, famine, and societal chaos have, each time, led to the downfall of empires and civilizations.