Adi F

Am getting a bit of a show up at selhurst park of the storm crossing the Chanel. Might head to portsdown in a bit

The strike alert is going mad here

I have been doing this for to long to get overly excited :winky: I am just giving myself options, If it kicks of it will be in the next hour or so. In the mean time I will continue with some work!

I am thinking Duncton Hill as the start point as it is a bit further inland and more likely to catch the cells coming in from the North West. GFS and NMM are suggesting different areas so Duncton Hill gives me the option of going with both GFS or NMM if anything kicks off. Ditchling Beacon does have the advantage of a 360 degree view though!

I am trying to work out were to place myself to start the chase, Ditchling Beacon or Duncton Hill? I am hoping that the storms the charts are suggesting will pop up east of Chichester along the south coast will come off. I am hoping i am mot placing myself to far west.

If you are going to buy a DSLR I would suggest ether a Canon or Nikon they are far better equipped than other companies. And offer far more lenses and other accessors. They also have the better image processing and there for better image quality. If you are wanting to mainly take landscape/skyscape images and don't want huge zoom ranges then i would suggest the Canon G12 or the Nikon P7000. All the manual interface and usability of the bigger brothers. Then the money you are left with Get a tripod, remote trigger, polarizing and ND filter, memory cards and spare batteries. If you want a camera with a super zoom then I can highly recommend the Olympus bridge cameras.

Well it looks like thats it for the time being on the south coast for a while. This time last week I started to watch the risk of thunderstorms and possible tornadoes for Monday and Tuesday for Ireland and the North west of England well a week on the trend of each run has continued and the area is roughly the same although it has changed slightly to Sunday and Monday which I mentioned earlier in the week. I think the area of greatest risk of Tornado activity is for the north west of England and north Wales on Monday between 10am and 1pm. And slightly later in the day, between 1pm and 4pm for the Sutherland area of Scotland. With risk of sometimes heavy thundery rain, possible deep standing water, gusting winds and hail for the South west England, Wales, Northern England, Wales, Scotland and the Ireland throughout the day. There is a caveat though. There is little correlation between GFS and NMM so I think although there is a risk it remains low.

I have just come home from Portdown hill, nothing up there apart from lots of rain, the A27 is flooded in places. The StrikeAlert was going off from time to time but didn't see of hear anything. I will charge the laptop up and then see what is happening.

I need to log off to charge my battery for a bit. hmmm strike alert has started beeping again

Red Punto parked in the last spot before the turning point at the top of the Mill Lane

Well I think it is going to be a long night

Lol get your ass up the hill the strike alert is giving off the occasional beep lol

I am sat up on portsdown hill and there is an occasional bleep from the strike alert

Right It time for me to relocate to the car. catch you all later. have fun all

I will be heading out in an hour or so and will have the laptop with me so will probably post if something is happening lol

All the Boltek detectors are pretty crap if they are not maintained regularly, they need to be calibrated at regular intervals. If using an online boltek detector on line find one local to you and check it is relatively accurate. The worst online detector sights are the ones that take data from lots of Bolteks because if they are not all calibrated correctly then the error is made even worse. There are some great detector sites on line such as Lightning Iceland and Blitzortung.org but there resolution is not great and their refresh rate is just not good enough to be used effectively.

lovely images guys, keep it up.

I am in Chi so it takes about 30 mins if i avoid the Bedhampton level crossing which held me for 20mins last night.

come on indeed lol

Yes it was a good night, shame you cant make it tonight.

good lol

Me too where abouts were you? If you or anyone else are thinking about heading up there again tonight please read my thread in the storm enthusiasts section

Cheers Tomp is that your site?

Ok guys there is a chance to of a repeat of last night later today. If any of you lot want to converge on Porsdown hill later please say so here. I suggest the car park to the west of Fort Widley... Here Great views over Portsmouth, out to sea and across the Downs. If Interested please add a comment below. A couple of you have contacted me via PM and we have swapped already mobile numbers. If you want to give me your mobile number or want mine then PM me. I will have the laptop with me for the rain radar and a lightning detector and of course the camera. For younger members of the forum and women that would normally put off going up on Portsdown Hill at night by them selves or with there kids this is an ideal situation there is safety in numbers. The more people interested and turn up the larger the area we take over and the less space for idiots.