Minimal sunshine and warmth on Friday as it was mainly cloudy being a degree down on Thursday and 1.5C below the 38-year average.
The thermometer dropped below freezing at 19.45 Friday evening and eventually fell to -0.8C at 00.57 early on Saturday.
Saturday arrived dull with full cloud, a little higher but little wind. Any evidence of an air frost had disappeared as the temperature had slowly risen to 0.9C before dawn. The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm registered 0.3C at 08.00.
Although the brisk breeze coming from the north usually means a cool day, this air stream originated in the Atlantic and had drifted clockwise around the anticyclone in mid-Atlantic before arriving in the UK, thus originating from a warmer, moist area.
There was a very brief, light shower at 15.45 that produced just 0.1mm of precipitation.
The thermometer rose to 6.6C being just 0.6C below the average and the warmest day since the 15th. There was no air frost overnight but there might have been a short-lived ground frost as the thermometer dropped to 1.1C at 02.16 early Friday before rising again to 2.7C at 08.00.
The brisk northerly breeze gusted to 20mph at one time and during that period there was an element of wind chill such that outside it felt 2C lower than that indicated on the thermometer.
Friday arrived with dull conditions due to low, thick cloud with the wind having veered into the northeast, but lighter than on Thursday.
The temperatures on Wednesday showed a modest recovery from the very cold weather of previous days. The slightly milder air mass from the Atlantic, that traveled clockwise around an anticyclone arrived on a westerly air movement then Northwest. The maximum of 4.4C was still 2.6C below the average but an overnight minimum of 0.5C, being 2.6C below the average, was the first above freezing night since the 16th. The maximum wind speed of 12mph was the strongest since the 18th.
The ground temperature at a depth of 5cm registered 0.2C at 08.00, the first day above freezing since the 17th.
Thursday began cloudy but just before 09.00 the sun began to roie above the cloud bank on the eastern horizon and shine strongly. The airmass from the Atlantic will continue but from the north today.
The maximum of 5.3C on Tuesday was still 1.7C below average although it was the warmest day since the 20th. The many hours of sunshine saw the UV level rise a fraction again to 0.9, not seen since 18th November.
During the evening the temperature began to slowly fall away reaching a minimum of -5.5C at 00.41 early on Wednesday. The temperature fall then began to reverse and climb to reach -1.3C at 08.00 on Wednesday.
Wednesday dawned grey with fog initially limiting visibility to 400m but varying.
The high pressure is beginning to relinquish its hold with a consequent fall in pressure. As a result, the air movement that has been coming from the northeast or east has also made an about turn and will come from the southwest or west later this morning.
Even in the sunshine on Monday the thermometer struggled to each 3.8C, being 3.2C below average. However, the last night was the coldest this month with a minimum of -8.0C at 07.34 on Tuesday, which was 9.3C below the 38-year average and the coldest night since 17th December (-9.1C).
The intense cold has seeped further into the ground with the soil thermometer at a depth of 5cm reading -4.6C at 08.00. That was the lowest temperature at that depth since the instrument was installed in 2013, the previous low being -3.3C on January 21st 2017.
Tuesday arrived with mainly clear skies and sunshine after the sun rose, but muted with thin cloud on the eastern horizon.
The barometric pressure has contoured to rise with a pressure reading of 1040.8mb at 08.00 from the extensive ridge that extends as Far East as Russia. It is the highest pressure since 15th march 2022 (1043.7mb).