BLANK HOLIDAY; Cold and rain spoils break.

Byline: By LOUISE MALE

A CHILDREN'S play area on a soggy and windswept beach is deserted... it must be a British bank holiday weekend.

This was the gloomy sight greeting visitors to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset yesterday and a scene mirrored up and down country.

And forecasters predict things will get colder today - with Britain CHILLIER than Russia and Norway.

Can't get any worse? Think again. Count on frustrating tailbacks as 18 million cars clog up the motorways and the AA predicting 57,000 breakdowns over the weekend.

John Millard, of the Met Office, said: "It will be another chilly day everywhere with scattered showers and a cold northerly wind."

Five teenagers had to be airlifted to safety yesterday when one of them developed breathing difficulties on a Duke of Edinburgh Award exercise on Dartmoor. The rescue was hampered by fog and driving rain but the children were eventually recovered after two hours.

Miserable weather left beaches including those in Kent and Blackpool abandoned yesterday with many special events rained off. The few brave souls who did endure the conditions were savagely blown about, rained on or left shivering. Today's temperatures are expected to be around a chilly 8C - compared to 11C in Norway and a baking 34C in Moscow.

The Highways Agency warned of congestion on all major motorways as holidaymakers head home.

Blackspots include the M6 near the Lake District, the M5 from the West Country to Bristol and the Hemel Hempstead M1 junction.

And tomorrow the weather will get better... just as we all head back to work.

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CAPTION(S):

SOMERSET The beach at Weston; KENT A family huddles under an umbrella in Margate; BLACKPOOL The beach is deserted; YORKSHIRE The England test at Headingley; Picture: SWNS