Grand Solar Minimum Symptoms

There are several lessons learned from studying very early global cooling events in Europe. See also the discussion of the Great Famine of 1315 in Episode 5.

1. Onset of these conditions can be very abrupt and very severe.
2. A decline in food production due to:
   1. Dramatic increase in days with overcast skies.
   2. Decline in the intensity of sunlight.
   3. Decline by several degrees in global temperature
   4. Regions of massive rainfall and flooding
   5. Limited regions experienced droughts
   6. Shortened growing season
3. A string of major and minor famines
4. Malnutrition lead to weakened immune system. Produced influenza epidemics.
5. Reoccurrence of plagues such as the Black Plague.
6. Lack of feed for livestock
7. Parasites (i.e. fusarium nivale), which thrived under snow cover, devastated crops.
8. Grain storage in cool damp conditions produced fungus (Ergot Blight). Contaminated grains when consumed caused an illness (St. Anthony’s Fire) producing convulsions, hallucinations, gangrenous rotting of extremities.
9. Flooding created swamplands that became mosquito breeding grounds and introduced tropical diseases such as malaria throughout Europe.
10. During hot summers, cold air aloft produced killer hailstorms (hailstones that could kill a cow).
11. Higher frequency of powerful storms produced major devastations.
12. Glacier advance swallowed up entire alpine villages.
13. Ruptured glacial ice dams produced deadly floods.
14. Drastic increase in seismic activity (earthquake, volcano)
15. Hugely increased atmospheric electric charge (fatal lightning strikes, positive lightning, sprites, noctilucent clouds, northern lights)