Hail, sunshine and ground frost, all in twenty-four hours

It was a much warmer day yesterday thanks to the more southerly air flow, which brought 2.82 hours of strong sunshine between the broken cloud and a maximum of 7.8C, the highest for twelve days. There was a brief, if sharp shower, just before 2.30pm when small hail (< 5mm) fell within the rain totalling 0.9mm. Overnight the thermometer fell to a minimum of 1.4C at 04.26 that gave a brief ground frost, which recovered slightly to 2.9C at 08.00 as there is now almost total cloud cover, but high, in advance of the advancing rain. It is the first morning with an above zero temperature after twelve days of frost at daybreak.