Chilly conditions that saw the people of Bermuda shivering in their beds on Thursday night came close to the coldest temperature ever seen on the Island.

A reading of 48.9 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded at 6 a.m yesterday, the Bermuda Weather Service said, compared with an all-time low of 44 degrees recorded in February, 1950.

And throughout yesterday winter squalls caused power cuts across the Island, including two circuits being knocked out in Warwick, affecting 150 homes.

?It?s usual for us to get temperatures this low once or twice each year,? said meteorologist Elizabeth Harris. ?This temperature would be momentary, often occurring in a down draft or a thunder storm.?

The hail came down so heavily on the golf course at the Mid Ocean Club yesterday morning that it looked like the putting green was littered with icy golf balls.

?I cannot recollect having seen this before in my 25 years at Mid Ocean Club,? said Bryan J. Mewett, the general manager. ?There were a bunch of people out there on the green when the hail came down and they had to take cover.?

However, according to the Weather Service, the weather is due to warm up during the course of the weekend, with high pressure building and bringing more settled weather.

At 2.30 p.m. yesterday a tree crashed onto wires outside Lindo?s Market in Warwick and knocked out two circuits. Power was restored to 150 homes by 4.20 p.m.

Linda Smith, vice president for external relations and corporate communications at Belco said extra crews were called in to deal with a string of power outages across the Island. She told : ?Nothing dramatic has happened. We haven?t had a bad day but we have had kind of a busy day. There have been isolated calls pretty much with every squall that?s come through.

?It?s been manageable and the outages have been very short. Apart from the two circuits out, the others have been small isolated incidents.?

The outages included one just before 4 a.m. yesterday morning on First Avenue, Frith Estate Road, Warwick, when live wires burned out over a swimming pool. It was unsafe for workers to fix the problem until daylight so power was not restored for the nine homes affected until 7.30am.

More than 300 homes were affected by a power cut in Brighton Hill, Devonshire, at 5.10 a.m. yesterday morning. Power was restored less than an hour later.

Other areas affected by short power cuts included Tucker?s Town and Khyber Heights, Warwick.