Baby It's Cold Outside

Not here. We've had record high temps the last couple of days - high 80's. But in the upper midwest things are downright frosty:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Temperatures crashed to Arctic levels Tuesday as a severe cold wave rolled across the upper Midwest on the heels of yet another snowstorm, closing schools and making most people think twice before going outside. Thermometers read single digits early in the day as far south as Kansas and Missouri, where some areas warmed only into the teens by midday.

The ice and snow that glazed pavement was blamed for numerous traffic accidents from Minnesota to Indiana, where police said a truck overturned and spilled 43,000 pounds of cheese, closing a busy highway ramp during the night in the Gary area.

So, Al Gore, what's going on? Well, this is what happens when the sun, or God, or the Sun God Ra if you want to be ecumenical about it, decides to show man that he's really just a parasitic speck on this planet and the real source of our heating and cooling cycles is just as we've said for years: It's the Sun, Stupid. The sun is very, very quiet right now and with the decrease in solar output comes the decrease in temperatures. All the SUVs and Kyoto Agreements in the world aren't going to change that.

We're not in charge.