Friday was a bitterly cold day, particularly in northern and eastern areas, with a strong to gale force northerly wind blowing in frequent sleet and snow showers to northern and eastern Scotland, and later, much of eastern England as an occluded front tracked south down the North Sea coast.

Southern and western parts of the UK saw some good sunny spells in very good or excellent visibility, but also a number of squally showers in the fresh to strong northerly to northwesterly winds. Some of the showers banded together in the unstable airflow, and as they moved south and westwards across England, produced a mix of rain, hail, sleet and snow, together with thunder and lightning at several locations. Hailstones as large as 15mm were unofficially reported to have fallen in central southern England.

Daytime maximum temperatures struggled to reach near normal values in the sunshine in southwestern areas, temperatures elsewhere were below normal for mid to late March.

Extremes of Temperature, Rainfall and Sunshine for the 24 hours ending 21/03/2008

Highest Day Max : LEE-ON-SOLENT, Hampshire : 11.7C

Lowest Day Max : BRAEMAR, Aberdeenshire : 2.2C

Lowest Night Min : DALWHINNIE, Highland : -1.3C

Highest Rainfall : SENNYBRIDGE, Powys : 20.4mm

Highest Sunshine : GLASGOW : 9.1Hours