The Intellectuals 224 members · 62 stories
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The recent weather in North America has had me thinking, I remember reading something about how when the Plymouth Colony was being established there is believed to have been a miniature ice age. Where the temperature was far below what is should be during that time of year and other thing you would expect during that time. Of course, there isn't much proof because this was hundreds of years ago. Kind of hard to find evidence.

Anyways, is it possible for a mini ice age to occur in North America again (if it ever did happen)? But I must mention that I do not believe that there is a mini-ice age, just asking if there is a possibility of one sometime in the next 10 years.

2353412 The ice age during the time of the Plymouth Colony was probably the Little Ice Age which occurred c.1500 - 1800, probably most famous to most people as the time when the Thames in London froze over. It was probably one of those climactic fluctuations that you hear global warming skeptics talk about all the time, resulting in a drop of a few degrees. (Actually it's not that hard to find evidence of temperature drops since such a global phenomenon would have effects everywhere from Antarctica to Lake Malawi)

There is also reason to suspect additional climatic disruptions during the 1600s (the time of the Plymouth Colony) as that century was characterized by worldwide disturbance akin to an early modern WWII, with the Thirty Years' War in Europe and the collapse of the Ming Dynasty in China.

It could happen, but not likely because of climate change/the global climactic trend is going back towards a maximum. If you believe in climate change and its effects on the Gulf Stream, an ice age could return to Europe.

2353412
There are a few ways for a mini ice age to occur. For example, if you get a big enough volcanic eruption to coincide with a deep enough solar minimum, you get things like what happened in 1816, also known as, the year without a summer.

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