Space Weather has announced the end of the solar minimum with glee. I visit this site every few days. They have some spectacular movies of the sun, sunspots, and coronal mass ejections (one going on right now), and their sun-activity data are fascinating.
We're having a heat wave here (Ohio) right now.
The entire west coast has been mild. South America is freezing millions of fish just like Florida last winter. So yes, increased solar activity would be nice. We shall see. Have 5 days now with just barely neutral activity.
What is Space Weather gonna do when the sun really gets ripping with 100 spots ?