The peak of 6.9C on Thursday made it the coldest day this month, also since 18th February (6.7C), being exactly 4C below my long-term average. This maximum was logged at 15.16 between the cloud activity that built up after 11.00 to the north of our area, and slowly tracked southwards. Under broken cloud in the evening the temperature eased downwards dropping to -0.1C at 21.58 and falling to a minimum of -3.2C at 04.35 early Friday, which was a significant 5.9C below my long-term average.

The weather station sends a pulse to the ‘cloud’ very 5 seconds and makes a recording every minute, which showed the thermometer beginning to rise significantly around 05.30, also tracking back in the cloud radar it is at that time when cloud and the fog began to drift southwards across our area, also confined by the humidity also rising at that time.

Friday morning revealed foggy conditions that limited visibility initially to 200m but began to thin after 07.30 with the thermometer having risen to -0.8C by 08.00.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac began publishing full moon names in the 1930s. I discovered that Native Americans called this last full moon of the winter the worm moon after the worm trails that would appear in the newly thawed ground. Other names include chaste moon, death moon and sap moon, after the tapping of the maple trees.

We have a couple more days of this cold weather but by Monday we are likely to see the temperature begin to recover to around the above normal for mid-March and later, hopefully above.