Provided by The Weather Café®

Graph of Sunspot activity during 2009Courtesy of one of The WxCafe's® favorite websites (spaceweather.com).  FYI:  the number of spotless days in 2009 were 260 (71%); 771 days since 2004.  In a typical solar minimum the number of spotless days runs 485, so the sun has been exceedingly 'quiet' for much of the decade ending today.  Is that about to end?