The most important thing in this update.

After the update, I did a Mawile raid solo. Level 2, pretty easy, went in with two level 20 fire blast Ho-Oh's around a level 31 Entei. Took down Mawile with ease. Got good rewards from the raid, including a fast TM, the usual 500 dust, and caught the Mawile. Key point, it was cloudy, which gave a boost to Fairy types like Mawile.

After the catch, I looked it over, and was pleasantly surprised to get a 1032 CP. The IV calc here says it's a 13s/14a/11d, which is fair. But it's also level 25. Power up is 4000 dust, not 2500. I'm level 36 right now, so I can have mon up to level 38.

What I suspect this means is that when you raid something with a weather buff, the 'stronger' mon you get is +5 levels. And that changes everything. From now on, to optimize things, we need to catch important raid mon (especially Legendaries) on a day when the weather buffs them. Take down a Brave Bird Ho-Oh on a clear day (fire buff) and you get a level 25 Ho-Oh, not a level 20. That's 28 Ho-Oh candy (or rare candy) and 31000 stardust you can spend elsewhere. Huge effect. I'm worried that Niantic will discover that this is too strong of a buff for the game, and take it out.

Additionally, the regular mon popping up at level 35 is cool too. Go to a Magikarp nest on a rainy day, catch as many as you can, probably getting one at level 35, add 400 candy and you have a Cp 2900+ Gyarados with zero dust invested. Do the same with any other mon.

Catches today at that level (we're cloudy here, so it's Fairy, Fighting, and Poison)(all values listed in GamePress format, s/a/d):
Oddish, CP 937, Level 35, 5/15/13
Marill, CP 347, Level 35, 5/13/6
Weedle, CP 333, Level 34, 7/14/11
Gulpin, CP 616, Level 33, 5/6/13
Venonat, CP 774, Level 35, 7/11/12
Koffing, CP 912, Level 35, 5/10/11

So, one of three things is in play:

1) This is the new normal, and we'll have to adjust our style of play to catch what the weather buffs, especially on raids.
2) Niantic will realize this is overbalanced, and will weaken it.
3) This is a bug, and Niantic will fix it ASAP.

If it's case 1, then everything we know has changed, and everything we have is now a little bit weaker relative to what we can get with little work. This is a huge paradigm shift, and we need to understand and use it.

ProfessorAero63