Fog greets resort's holiday visitors

With the Met Office forecasting unsettled weather for the next few days, many trippers arrived in Scarborough on Saturday to find wintry conditions with frequent showers.

Motorists endured long queues in traffic jams on Saturday after schools broke up for half-term.

The volume of traffic built up from 7.30am with delays reported on motorways and key routes to holiday destinations, experts said.

Rain added to problems on the roads as cool and showery weather affected the country in contrast to last weekend's heat.

Graham Smith, data manager at Trafficmaster, said the roads were far busier than normal, possibly because people had decided to delay their departure on Friday night, hoping for better weather in the morning.

The Highways Agency had suspended more than 30 sets of roadworks until today, but 32 remained in place, while rail passengers also had to contend with delays and cancellations on some lines owing to engineering work.

Despite the soggy start, town centres in the Yorkshire resorts were heaving with visitors hoping for a repeat of the previous weekend's heat wave.

Many caf, restaurant, and pub owners did brisk business on Saturday night as the weather deteriorated.

Fog and sea mist descended over Scarborough by late evening reducing visibility to zero.

Bright periods yesterday encouraged visitors on to the beach but by mid afternoon the weekend was starting to look like a wash out.

On visitor said: "It was so foggy on Saturday night our taxi driver could not even find his way back to our hotel without a few wrong turns.

"We thought it was going to be one of the hottest weekends of the year and Scarborough is only worth going to in sunny weather."