Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia
    and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

    The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that
    many American cities and towns suffered record cold 
    temperatures in January and early February. According to 
    the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F 
    cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."

    China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. 
    Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so
    long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks
    without electricity because once power lines had toppled it
    was too cold or too icy to repair them...

    ...Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, 
    who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is
    convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold 
    weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.