This year is on pace to have the lowest sunspot activity on record.

This photo taken yesterday shows ZERO activity. Some meteorologists think that reduced sunspot activity correlates with colder winters.

Google Trends reports on volume for specific search queries. This graph shows that North Americans start to get curious about the outlook for winter right just before Labor Day. Interest peaks in long term winter outlook in October and then dies in December.

(click to enlarge.)

It’s interesting to note the importance given to Joe Bastardi’s predictions in this area.  The point above labeled “A” is correlated with news story that deal with Bastardi’s criticism of NWS for echoing his predictions, when he felt they should be leading. Isn’t is possible that Joe’s call was based on the same science, and therefor both predictions were aligned?