Little Ice Age was preceded by unusually high solar activity in the 13th century

I have speculated here before that we still understand very little about the our sun and its effect on earth's climate. In particular, variations in solar activity and solar cycles are not well understood! 

Solar activity is not a constant as Climate Change demagogues want us to believe! Au contraire! Over time variable solar activity may in the end be one of the major causes for climate change on earth as you would expect!

There are only a few things we know something about variable solar activity. But not much, like the 11-year sunspot cycle, the solar activity minimums like Maunder Minimum.

Then what about major volcanic activity on earth? Is perhaps, the absence of major volcanic activity since Krakatoa volcano eruption of 1883 (caused among other things a volcanic Winter) one of the factors affecting the current warming period?

What this study also suggests is that major natural events that occurred several hundred years ago still influence today's climate! 

"The answer ... is to be found in trees. Once the researchers compared their findings to a new record of solar activity revealed by radiocarbon isotopes preserved in tree rings, they discovered that unusually high solar activity was recorded in the late 1300s. Such solar activity tends to lead to high atmospheric pressure over Greenland.
At the same time, fewer volcanic eruptions were happening on earth, which means that there was less ash in the air. A “cleaner” atmosphere meant that the planet was more responsive to changes in solar output.  ..."

From the abstract:

"The Little Ice Age (LIA) was one of the coldest periods of the postglacial period in the Northern Hemisphere. Although there is increasing evidence that this time interval was associated with weakening of the subpolar gyre (SPG), the sequence of events that led to its weakened state has yet to be explained. Here, we show that the LIA was preceded by an exceptional intrusion of warm Atlantic water into the Nordic Seas in the late 1300s. The intrusion was a consequence of persistent atmospheric blocking over the North Atlantic, linked to unusually high solar activity. The warmer water led to the breakup of sea ice and calving of tidewater glaciers; weakening of the blocking anomaly in the late 1300s allowed the large volume of ice that had accumulated to be exported into the North Atlantic. This led to a weakening of the SPG, setting the stage for the subsequent LIA."

"... In brief, this study highlights through observational and paleo evidence that anomalous blocking in the 14th century, linked to extremes in solar activity and low volcanic forcing, led to the intrusion of warm Atlantic water into the Nordic Seas (51), which, in turn, resulted in the export of large amounts of ice into the North Atlantic, with downstream effects on the SPG and possibly the AMOC strength. This sequence of events was the precursor to the main phase of the [Little Ice Age]. ..."

P.S. The second author of this study is a co-author of the infamous hockey stick study! Did not the hockey stick study deny the relevance of the Little Ice Age?

Winter Is Coming: Researchers Uncover The Surprising Cause Of The Little Ice Age Cold era, lasting from early 15th to mid-19th centuries, triggered by unusually warm conditions

Little Ice Age abruptly triggered by intrusion of Atlantic waters into the Nordic Seas | Science Advances (open access) High solar forcing caused subpolar gyre warming followed by massive sea ice export that led to the Little Ice Age ~600 years ago.

Credits: See my blog post here