If Kingsteignton man Dave Bellamy had been born a few generations earlier he might well have been another Caractacus Potts.

For those who can't place the name, Potts was Ian Fleming's good-natured inventor who, after spending days in his shed with an old banger, emerged to amaze and delight the world with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Only 31-year-old Dave, a highways civil engineer, is a man of the digital age so his tools and materials are somewhat different.

His passion for understanding how things work and pulling them apart to produce something better means delving deep into the world of computer code, learning how data is processed.

When he does that at work it might result in millimetre-perfect drainage for roads anywhere in Britain. What it has produced in his spare time is Kingsteignton's own weather station and website.

Not only does it offer up to the minute information, there is also three years' worth of complete meteorological data to be had.

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