There are at least 3 possibilities I can think of, one of which doesn't match the *rest* of the evidence.
1. Last year was an unusually warm year, and/or this year is an unusually cold one, in that particular region. The change in ice cover between last year and this does not represent the overall long-term trend, simply the vagaries of weather.
2. The Great Lakes region is one of the areas that has local cooling due to global warming, as overall warming has altered the patterns of air and water that move heat from one place to the other (for example, afaik the Gulf Stream is the reason why Great Britain is at about the same latitude as southern Canada, but it's much warmer--if it stopped, England would be a lot colder)
3. Global warming isn't happening.
Either of the first 2 is generally consistent with the overall scientific evidence available, and I'd need to see long-term temperature and/or ice cover records for that particular area to see which is which. The last... isn't.
Last spring was very cold and there was ice on the lakes into June, as a result the lake waters did not warm as much in the summer as they usually do, so of course colder water freezes earlier.
Weather patterns disrupted by global warming led to unusual blast of cold weather.
Global warming must be the reason why the planet is getting colder. This way no matter if the planet gets warmer or colder, global warming is always the reason.
Yes, warm air pushed more cold air out of the arctic.
Thanks for noticing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/01/16/great-lakes-ice-makes-a-leap-after-january-cold-snap/
