The short answer is no, we are not seeing the begining of another ice age with the long cold prairie winter.  As an earth scientist and researcher in Saskatchewan I am depressed by the never ending winter this year we are sharing with the northern prairie states.

This is an example of inter annual variation.  The snow pack was very heavy this year, and during initial melt there were cold periods accompanied by snowfall.  This led to a long period of persistance of the snow pack and very high albedo creating localized cooling.  Since the remaining snow pack is so wide spread we are seeing a late onset of spring.

Why is this not an ice age? because it is not causing the glaciers to advance.  The snow will be gone soon and there will be no permanent change as a result.  We have been in an ice age for about 2 milllion years, however we are in an interglacial warm period at the moment.

It actually takes a long time for the planet to switch between glacial and interglacial periods in an ice age, and while we are past the interglacial maximum, there is nothing to get excited about yet.  When the glaciers begin advancing on a yearly basis across wide areas of the northern hemisphere, (they are receeding in recent decades) then a transition may be begining.

Usually this transition is as a result of long term orbital wobbles called Milankovitch cycles and changes in greenhouse gas composition of the atmosphere.  While the wobbles may present us with problems in 11000 CE, the greenhouse gas trend is currently going in the opposite way for the onset of another glaciation period.

Relax, it is just bad local weather is what I am trying to say.

The data back then was skewed due to dust/sulfite particles in the air (and that wasn't taken into acount) blocking the sunlight. Stricter rules against pollution were already put into place by then and the effect kicked in some decades later. Nowadays the air is much cleaner on average.

People, I realize it is a cold spring, but it is not "just a cold spring". Just a cold spring will be 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th, on the records, or break the record by maybe .5°. We are going to be breaking the record by probably 3.5°. That is incredible.

Also, if you would read the whole thing, I realize this doesn't mean: OMG, ITS AN ICE AGE, but also realize that the ridge just being stuck in the western US all April shouldn't happen.

And to the one who said the albedo effect is the cause of this (while it may be keeping Canada cooler, which is then coming down here), it also has a lot to do with the fact we are stuck in a trough. Once the ridge moves over, it will warm up.

But the simple fact is, we shouldn't be stuck in a trough this nasty for this long. There's a reason it is completely smashing the past record for coldest April on record.

I don't think people realize we're still in an ice age.

How does this relate to the on going trend of  glacial retreat.

uhm.. I don't denie global warming, it's getting hotter, especially in the polar regions and glaciers are melting at an alarming pace, yet there are mechanisms how this might actually lead to a drastic cooling

the hypothesis is that europe and north america are warm right now mainly because of the gulf stream which flows from the caribean gulf to north of norway/svalbard and carries warm/ low on salt water at the surface and cold/highly saline water at the bottom - now global warming means that a lot of cool/cold fresh water is added to the ocean, but that water can't sink down as quickly as highly salted water does so the stream might weaken and not lead as far into the north anymore or even stop completely resulting in very very drastic cooling for the northern hemnisphere

different hypothesises say very similar things may happen in the pacific ocean, but frankly pacific ocean streams are barely researched at this point

Glacial advancement and retreat is just a mass balance problem, if more mass is added to the glacier than sublimates or melts, they advance, otherwise, they retreat. In a warmer environment it is possible that winter deposition may increase allowing the glaciers to advance, however, my glaciologist coworkers see no sign of this happening at the moment.

As to the shutdown of the gulf stream... a geologist friend of mine was looking at a partial shutdown of the bifurcated Icelandic portion of the stream in the past. The effect was sudden, but not global in scope. Locally it was bad. In terms of total energy transfer of the gulf stream, It may have negative impacts on western Europe, but it is not likely to change Canadian or Russian conditions much since they don't benefit from it much right now. The ocean currents are not the only poleward energy conduit.

Ok, I understand.

But still, when landmass was concentrated near the equator (the Pangea continent), wasn't that like +100 million of years ago? And I recall that I have seen numbers of past CO2 thrown around of at least 500ppm if not more. But perhaps those really high CO2 concentrations were pre-cambrian and after that it's been more or less stable in the 2-300ppm ballpark during almost 500 million years. Is that the current theory? Which would mean that our current 390ppm is a level we haven't seen in hundreds of millions of year. Is that the current theory, or have we had 500ppm levels after the cambrian, during interglacial periods or whatever?

I'm just curious.

Also, I never understood what triggers the glacial-interglacial periods and the differences of at least 4 degrees Celcius (or is it even +6 degrees?).

I also haven't got a good explanation for the lag in CO2 concentration to temperature if CO2 is supposed to be the driving force or trigger.

You could say the same about the UK, it's late April and they are still hardly any leaves on the trees. Most plants still haven't come through. Spring is way over a month late now. We still get night time frosts occasionally even now, which is very unusual for us. The snow has melted here though, but in some parts it lasted from January to early April with the odd warm spell. It's still far colder than last year though. I think the record low Arctic sea ice last summer has a major cause in this, as it releases huge amounts of cold water which helps to change our weather patterns. In London, we have currently have temperatures of 15c in the day now, despite being only 5c about 2 weeks ago and 0c before that. Not as bad as what you are saying but still colder than we expect. I don't if we could say this is leading to an ice age unless it became a yearly event (remember winter used to be like this about 200 to 300 years). But extreme weather events of all kinds are certainly becoming common.