Is he related to those "experts" who, at the beginning of March, were predicting in the papers that the month was going to be a scorcha?

There are some respectable reasons, related to oceanic oscillations in the north Atlantic and Arctic, which operate on a decadal timescale, for thinking that Europe and the USA are in for generally cooler winters for a while. Calling it an ice age is a bit rich though.

What has been odd about the past winter has been the very small day/night temperature differences. During the periods when it's been cold by day, it's not been much colder by night.