There does seem to be. If you plot the sunspot cycle during the last 100 years against the severity of Northern hemisphere weather systems as is described in Mercury magazine for August-October 1996 in an article by Dr. Sallie Balliunas, you do see a very interesting, in-phase, correlation. But, you have to look at weather indices that integrate over large areas of the Earth, not just local precipitation patterns to see the sunspot-weather connection.
There are many technical reviews of this issue. One you might look at that seems to be accurate so far as I can tell is the one by Dr. Theodor Landscheidt. There is also an article at the American Geophysical Union web site on 'Solar Irradiance and Long-Term Climate Variability'.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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