Sunspots have been well documented throughout human history, starting in the fourth century BC, with written descriptions by Gan De, a Chinese astronomer. In 1128, an English monk, John of Worcester, was the first person known to have drawn sunspots, and after the telescope’s arrival in the early 1600s, observations and drawings became commonplace, including by such luminaries as Galileo Galilei. Then, to the astonishment of astronomers, they saw the sunspots diminish and die out altogether. This was the case during the Little Ice Age, a period starting in the 15th or 16th century and lasting centuries, says NASA’s Goddard Space Centre, which links the absence of sunspots to the cold that then descended on Earth. During the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, a time known as the Maunder Minimum (named after English astronomer Edward Maunder), astronomers saw only about 50 sunspots over a 30-year period, less than one half of 1% of the sunspots that would normally have been expected. Other Minimums — times of low sunspot activity — also corresponded to times of unusual cold.
The big joke in New England is if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. Things change around here pretty fast. In North Carolina you get used to certain weather patterns, particularly the summertime storms. It will be hot all day then storm in the afternoon. Or, a cold front will push through and you'll have stormy weather, then clear weather.
But up here it can be sunny one minute and storming the next, then the sun will come out while the trees are still dripping with rain. Yesterday was like that. It was cloudy to begin with, then partly cloudy, then it got noticeably black outside, enough for us to stop working and go out into the parking lot to look. I grabbed the new video camera and ran out the door to see what I could find.
Over the hills behind the office the clouds were rolling in black and purple. It looked like something from a science fiction movie. I whipped the camera up and aimed at the sky, looking around me to see if anything was swirling. They say they don't have many tornados up here but if you see a cloud like that in North Carolina it means tornado. It was so low I thought it would cover the tops of the hills. Nothing was swirling but it sure looked mean. Lightning started popping and I got back under the awning just before the bottom fell out. It rained hard for ten minutes, then it was over.
Back in the office, I discovered my prized footage wasn't there. Being in a rush and still not used to the new camera, I had turned it off when I wanted to turn it on, and turned it on when I wanted to turn it off. I got some great shots of my feet running to get in out of the rain. But with weather like this I'm sure I'll get another opportunity soon.
Here's the radar from this morning - you can't miss it. When I checked it out I realized we were underneath the only storm in the northeastern United States. Now that's what I call "isolated".
