This is actually right in line with global warming predictions. I seem to be the only person who was paying attention when they pointed out that colder, harsher winters would result. I just watched a newscaster try to discredit global warming by saying that a similar cold snap back in the 70s led people to think a new ice age was on the way--as if being wrong then somehow meant automatically that they were wrong now.
The science is better, the technology is better, and the predictions are more accurate than they were then. There is still a lot of uncertainty in all of this, but we are not seeing anything that contradicts an observation of global warming.