The forecast for the day was anything but bleak as a club learned more about the role of a major organisation.

Arriving on the first 'variable weather' day after several weeks of the heatwave, 16 members of the Beaminster Probus Club visited the Meteorological Office in Exeter to find out more about the weather and the role of the Met Office.

A member of the club said: "An introductory overview surprised us with the scope and diversity of the Met Office's services and the way they underpin our personal and corporate lives.

"We are all familiar with their daily and medium range local and national forecasts, but the Met Office also provides many specialist forecasts such as those for aviation, the military, event organisers and even space weather to protect our satellites and astronauts."

Members learned that their forecasts were key to the timing and success of the Normandy D-Day landings.

The tour guide drew attention to the impact of climate change and provided evidence for it, however, particularly impressive was how forecasting accuracy has improved over the decades.

The four-day forecasts today are comparable in accuracy to the one-day forecasts of three decades ago, due to improvements in weather monitoring, modelling techniques and computer power.

The member said: "Our very experienced guide freely shared her knowledge and experience with us, answering questions and helping our understanding on a wide range of topics as we explored the library, supercomputer suite, measuring equipment and forecasting centre."

At the end of the two and-a-half hour tour, the Met Office allowed the club to use the canteen facilities to regroup and take refreshments before joining the summer traffic on the A35 back to Beaminster.