There's a bit of text at the top saying I can have the old layout if I accept cookies. This sounds like an admission that the old layout was better and they are trying to pressure me into accepting their advertising cookies.

What does anyone else make of it?

The new layout is awful, viewing the site as I do on a 32-inch 4K monitor - it looks like it's designed for phones and everything's massive. I've fed back on both my regular PCs that the old view is not only much more pleasing to look at, you can see most of the day's forecast in one go without having to click through a zillion "next" buttons. 

It's a typical thing when a newb designer takes over, eyes full of phones and tablets but forgetting that plenty of people still use laptops and desktops. 

As for the cookies, that just gets a "meh" from me and I wouldn't consider them a reason to block myself from seeing the better version of the site! I do use a hosts file from someonewhocares, though, so don't generally see ads.

Thanks both of you for bringing up this subject. You can of course add your comments which I did with something along the lines of what Darren's just said. I wonder if they read them? Thank you Darren.

I doubt it means that. The cookies required will be functional ones, i.e to store your choices. Advertising cookies are categorised differently. 

Yes, it’s caused an outrage over here. The timing has made the outrage worse, being at the start of the severe storm season. Brisbane was hit by a supercell over the weekend, the new radar shows rainfall rates rather than the reflective radar type previously used. When the supercell crossed Brisbane it contained hail greater than golf ball size in places. However, the radar shows rainfall rates in mm’s, anything over 128mm an hour is recorded as a red colour, and there is no higher rate. It’s impossible to determine hail or rain, unlike the reflective radar type which shows hail in varying black colours. So people did not move cars thinking heavy rain was on the way. As you can imagine the complaints from this event are enormous. Even the government are involved now asking for an enquiry. 

I access it predominantly on my phone, yet still think the old design is way, way clearer - as well as giving me the more comprehensive data I want to see.

The new format is more a 'quick glance', which I get is for people wanting just a 'what will it do today' snapshot. And, given the commercial pressure the Met Office now has to contend with (no longer fully funded by the state 😒), it needs to pander to the masses (the vast majority of whom aren't weather enthusiasts)