A temperature of 45.9 degrees Fahrenheit at noon yesterday was only two degrees warmer than the 50-year low, the Bermuda Weather Service said yesterday. BWS meteorologist Kimberley Zuill revealed last night the reading was recorded ?during the bouts of hail we had around noon?.

Two-and-a-half year old Iannah Caines of Cavendish Heights, Devonshire got to grips with just how cold it was when a bucket placed outside the family home filled with hailstones at 7.45 p.m.

?I heard it but ignored it,? her father Troy Caines said.

But his wife Jennifer called him outside to witness the deluge.

?It was like snow on the ground,? Mrs. Caines said, adding her son Korrin Lightbourne had ?scooped it up with an ice-cream scoop?.

Mr. Caines said it was the closest thing to snow that he had ever seen in Bermuda ? although Ms Zuill rejected the idea that any had fallen.

?There is no way it is snow,? Ms Zuill said. ?Snow forms under different conditions. It has to be a warm front and there are various factors which create different forms of snow. It was definitely hail.?

The cause of the terrible weather, she explained, was a very intense low pressure system to the north.

?It is a storm,? she said. ?Cold air is being drawn down from the north. It is the same system that brought very severe weather across the eastern United States this weekend,? she said.

And there does not appear to be any let up on the horizon.

Although winds are expected to decrease today, the weeks of gorgeous weather experienced in the early part of January are long gone.

?We are into our winter season, which will continue with only a few days grace here and there,? she said.