Thank you for your reply - maybe others should take note on how to reply without being condescending! The tone of some other comments were very offputting for a new poster........
I am all too well aware of Metcheck's limitations: I have watched them, along with other sites, for so long it is hard to remember a time before! So I am under no illusions. BUT.... Once before, I noted a similar change of patten like this. At the time no one else did among the sites that I watched. That was in October 2009. The change of pattern then was colder than this, but still it is worth noting. Of course it could disappear tomorrow, but I prefer to look for positive signs, and hope, rather than prematurely wring my hands! Time enough for that when the reality is upon us.
I posted this - and I should have made this clear - in response to the prevailing tone of gloom in this thread. Maybe, just maybe, Metcheck might have it right again. I frmly stand by my view that everything is still to play for!