World grain yields, snow cover, solar activity and Quasi-Biennial Oscillation relationships

Approximately 70% of the year-to-year variability in world grain yields for 1968–1987 can be explained by a simple model involving three variables: yields, winter northern hemisphere areal snow cover and annual solar activity in the preceding year. Eighty five percent of the world grain yield variability can be explained by this model, due to an enhanced solar signal, in years when the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) is in its west phase. This result is bolstered by recent similar findings by others and supports the detectable impact of solar activity on weather in the stratosphere and troposphere when measured on a global scale.