Abstract
Surface meteorological data at several stations over the period 1875–1936 are examined in relation to solar activity. In particular an attempt is made to we if these historical data can be reconciled with the sun-QBO-weather relationship recently found in modern (post-1950) data by van Loon and Labitzke (vLL). The basic problem in extending vLL's analysis to earlier periods is ignorance of the phase of the QBO. In the present study, vLL's computations are repeated for the historical data using several million possible sequences for the phase of the QBO. The results reveal problems in reproducing vLL's results in the earlier data. This indicates either that the QBO behaved differently in the past, or that vLL's results for a solar-weather relationship are not stable over the long term.
