"Col" wrote in message
...
snip However I always did think it rather silly when they introduced
that
schedule a few years ago, a short forecast at 18.25 then a 'full'
one half an hour later. I'm glad they've now got just one slot for the
evening forecast.


.... when it was introduced, the idea was that the 1825-ish slot would
cover the short-period, and the 1855 (some regions/nations ... Wales,
Scotland & N.Ireland behave differently) would cover the 'extended
range': in other words, the 1855 was NOT intended to be a restatement of
the 1825. Somewhere along the way, that all fell apart, hence the
perception that there was over-egging of the pudding. The original idea
worked fine - so someone decided to change it!

(We actually had a senior director of the Met Office a few years back
who, without any embarrassment, wrote ... " if it ain't broke, break it
": in other words, keep poking the ants nest to see what mayhem you can
cause. It worked: we were all thoroughly confused within 12 months.)

Martin.