Bermuda managed to weather record low temperatures two days running, with Saturday's cold temperatures doing more than sending chills down the collective spine.

An electrical power outage in the Spanish Point area resulted in the postponement of a scheduled soccer game between Dandy Town and the Devonshire Cougars.

On Friday, a new record low was set for the date January 24, with the temperature dipping just barely past the old record of 50 degrees Fahrenheit (set in 1977) to 49.9 degrees Fahrenheit.

The record for January 25 was decisively smashed on Saturday however, with temperatures plummeting past the old record of 54 degrees in 1995 to 49.6 degrees.

And the cold, said BELCO spokeswoman Linda Smith, was partially responsible for the blackout which affected the Spanish Point, Berkeley Hill, St. John's Road, North Shore area on Saturday night.

"Eight-hundred and fifty customers were affected at varying times between 6 p.m. and 9.45 p.m. (Saturday)," she said yesterday.

A palm leaf had fell onto a main line, taking out one circuit, she explained.

The palm leaf was quickly cleared and that circuit closed, switching the electrical load over to another circuit. However, said Ms Smith, due to Saturday's cold the load was about ten percent higher than normal Islandwide, "maybe even higher in the Spanish Point area", with customers running electrical heaters.

"The high load then caused the next circuit to trip," said Ms Smith. "That was reinstated in about ten seconds, but that caused two others to come out affecting (the entire area)."

The area included St. John's Field, where a game scheduled to take place between Dandy Town and Devonshire Cougars was postponed about ten minutes before it began.

"They did a great deal of switching to spread the load over a number of circuits until everything was stabilised," said Ms Smith.

She said a new substation at Admiralty House is in the works to help prevent such happenings from occurring again. "That will help reinforce the Spanish Point area... It should be commissioned in March," she said.

Ms Smith also said BELCO was very grateful to customers in that area who have suffered several "planned and unplanned" power outages due to trenching in preparation for the new substation. "Everyone has been hugely patient," she said. "Certainly this should improve service to Spanish Point."

In fact, a second substation is also being planned for the St. John's Road area on BELCO property. "That starts this year and extends through 2004," said Ms Smith.

Temperatures will be warming up somewhat tomorrow, said Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist Declan O'Connell, however a cold front was expected to hit the Island again tonight.

"So Tuesday's going to be pretty cold," he said. Normally at this time of year daily highs are around 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and lows are around 60 or 61 degrees, he said.

Tomorrow's high, however, will be 60, while the tonight low is predicted as 50 degrees.