It has been worse. Right now in NE Iowa we are negative 5 fahrenheit. Predicted 3-6" of fluffy snow this afternoon and then a larger ice_snow storm for Thurs_Friday. Having been a teenager in the 1980's I remember how bad winter can be and must say we haven't had a truly nasty winter since about 1987. I look at all the modern livestock confinement buildings with only curtains for sidewalls and wonder how they will perform when we get a cycle of subzero weather for several weeks. local record is 56 days below zero F with windchills much colder than that. I'm with R.O.M. on the weather cylces and feel we are headed back to colder winters and (hopefully) summers more conducive to baling dry alfalfa hay. On the sunspot cycle, I read an article that mentioned 2011-2012 as the projected peak and that we are due for a strong cycle similar to during our Civil War in the 1860's. According to the article, if the flares are as strong as they were at that time, most sensitive electronics will fail - electronic engine controls, GPS, communication systems, computers of all types... Apparently the 1860's telegraph was too robust to be affected, or was a new enough technology that the cause of the interference wasn't realized at the time. One week without Internet, phone, electric or even an automobile and America will be in anarchy. Pretty much the same as the result of a nuclear EMP.