Dimahop

What do the two maps represent? Obviously the British isles but I'm reading that as Low to Slight chance of convection or are they different times of day? (Sorry...I should educate myself more on the data!) Reading the text I may decide to drive up to Lincoln way.

Is this mammatus... This is just south of crawley

Well, shot one and missed one here in Crawley. Sadly missed a type of lightning where it arc'rd horizontally, seemingly back and forth for about 1 second and the struck down. The one I snapped had arc's coming in from both directions. I'll post it in the morning.

Would be surprised if it kicked off in sussex later. But I don't understand the weather enough!

Hey buddy. I'm assuming you have no lightning detection rig. Ideally you need a tripod or base of somesort (to steady the camera). Set the camera to timer (so you don't jog it when pressing shoot) Set to manual focus (focus towards a far away object using your live view - or in cam if you can). So basically what you want to do (ideally) is keep the shutter open for as long as possible. In both day and night instances. More chance of catching a strike. During the day it means - ISO 100 (or less), Very small aparture (F16 or more - although if you go too high you'll get defraction softness). At those settings in current light - approx. 1/60 second should give a balanced exposure. Now you'll want to just keep shooting away (or set the camera to auto shoot for a given time - say 1 shot per 2-3 seconds, whatver works). Without a lightning detector you won't know when lightening will strike so you'll have to be lucky. During the night - much easier. Keep settings as i said...ISO 100, F16, Timer (or remote), Manual focus. You want a shutter speed of around 6-8 seconds. Thats much more time to get a strike. Its best to use a remote in both instances as you won't touch the camera and risk a jog. OH AND REMOVE ALL METAL OBJECTS FROM YOUR PERSON. ALSO WATCH OUT USING A TRIPOD. IF YOU CAN, USE AN IN CAR CLAMP OR A JOBI GORILLA POD CLAMPED TO YOUR CAR WINDOW. SORRY...CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH - TRIPODS ATTRACT ELECTRICITY!

Getting light pricipitation and smell in the air now at crawley..this is looking towards south downs

Starting to bubble up all around crawley.

Hi guys, newbie here. I'm a keen storm photographer based in South croydon but working just outside Crawley. Nice to see these updates. It's clouding up pretty well here but difficult to see any tower growth as a lot of Low cloud. Was going to head south towards coast later myself but I'll follow development on Blitzortung