Winter Warmers usually come in the shape of bottles of strong ale or mulled wine or even in warm jugs of cider laced with ginger, cinnamon and cloves, but in this instance we may have another kind of winter warmer, a burst of solar energy that struck the Earth on the 19th December. The insinuation here is that big outflows of plasma from the Sun can add a lot of energy in the form of heat into the Earth system – which it therefore has to quickly dissipate to get back to ambience. Hence, the outflow of heat from the overheated tropics into NW Europe. Can it really be that simple? Likely not but food for thought. You can always use the contact email address on our web site if you have something to add to this idea.
At www.spaceweather.com … we have an image of a geomagnetic storm also producing colourful light in the night sky over Chile. This is air glow – an aurora like phenomenon in the upper atmosphere.