Not sure if you were saying that in jest but that is how ice ages generally begin. If ice does not melt until mid-summer, than it is much quicker to freeze back up the following year. Once you get to the point that the lakes no longer completely thaw, a tipping point is reached and the ice age begins in earnest.
I'm not going to panic like Al Gore but it does bear watching to see how quickly things freeze back up next winter.
Half-jest. Saginaw Bay is incredibly shallow, freezes over very quickly but can be counted on to thaw fairly quickly as well. I don’t see this year’s thaw as something that can be counted on happening until late spring—which figures, since some old high school pals and I are having a mini-reunion in Caseville mid-May. The Bay will still have ice chunks floating around, that’s my guess.