Southern Storm

Eagle Eye Congrats Eagle . when it comes to storms it's a total game changer. There is nothing worse than knowing that storms are within reach but you're stuck where you are, and with your meteorological knowledge, you'll be able to put yourself in some great spots.

ChannelThunder Exactly. Don't get me wrong, if someone approached me and offered me money to use one of my photos, I'd happily take it I think it's fair to say the both of us won't be winning entrepreneur of the year anytime soon

ChannelThunder When you sign up, it states that any pictures submitted as part of weather watchers can be used by the BBC, I'm not too sure how far that goes, but I'm fine with It. If I started thinking about lightning photography as a way of generating money, I feel it would take away the passion & excitement and could potentially lead to putting myself in some sketchy situations chasing that "money shot" Add to that the fact that there isn't that much money to be made in selling lightning photographs, so I really don't think it is worth the hassle of trying to make a few bob.

ChannelThunder Thanks for the heads up and letting me know that one of my photos was on the main BBC news feed, I had no idea it had been featured, it was a nice surprise. So what can be said about last other than what a crazy evening it ended up being, especially after a day of checking the latest models to see which areas stud the best chance of seeing storms, but of course there was a lot of chopping and changing going on with the various models. There were a few niggling doubts in the back of my mind which got me thinking about throwing in the towel and calling it a day, But in the end, the chance of seeing a thunderstorm was too hard to refuse, so I decided to head out just before midnight and travel to Portsdown hill, which was around an hours drive away and the storms weren't forecast to arrive until after 1am so off I set. Once I arrived, I only had to wait around half an hour to 45 minutes before lightning could be seen in the distance to the east. At the beginning it was just sheet lightning but as the storm got closer I started seeing a few CGs thrown in, but they were definitely in the minority, almost all of the lightning was of intra-cloud, and another positive was that the thunder was quite small loud. I was expecting it to be a little bit meh because of the elevated nature of the storms, but that wasn't the case at all. Anyway I could ramble on and on about last night, but i woke up at at 6:30 yesterday and haven't had any sleep since I have a bit of video footage from last night that a need to look through and edit, that can wait for the weekend, but here are some photos from The early hours of this morning. All in all, an epic start to the convective season, with more chances to come! and with any luck, other parts of the country that have so far missed out, hopefully you will get your turn in the not too distant future! SS

Sprites Thanks, I was located at Portsdown hill, overlooking Portsmouth so I don't think they are related.

Eagle Eye Thanks! Keep the Faith, your time will come! This is actually The first time I've captured a bolt hitting the Earth, hope no damage was caused. For this one picture alone it was totally worth the drive

If we can have something like this every fortnight for the rest of the season I'd take it I can't wait to start editing some photos from this evening, Way better than I was expecting. I'm looking forward to catching up with the thread properly in the morning, but I'm going to have to head back soon. Enjoy this guys, we all deserve it after last year's storm season

Nice bit of slow motion PXL_20240502_014824928~2.mp4

Absolutely awesome scenes

It happening

I'm see a decent amount of lightning to me east and a big flash just now

Arnie Pie I'm hoping to stream something later if anything develops at my location overlooking Portsmouth, only problem is all the boy/girl racers parked up blaring out loud music If anyone knows the area, are there any other viewpoints nearby that doesn't attract youths? God I feel old typing that

Eagle Eye beautiful! Photos Eagle, keep them coming I decided to head to Portadown hill overlooking Portsmouth, I'm praying this doesn't end up as thundery rain.

Eagle Eye Nice one. Keeping my fingers crossed something come your way

Down here in Christchurch, the rain is just stating to fizzle out, fairly light wind which maybe offshore going off the direction of low level cloud, opposite to the band of rain. It definitely doesn't feel thundery at all, but It felt similar back in September, and that turned out to be the best storm I witnessed in 2023 (in the UK) so who knows.

Flash bang flash bang etc Amazing I can relate also

Lu. Hopefully it will come to you, you're in a decent location, good luck

Azazel I remember it well. A great end to least years storm season, and great start to the 2024 season if things pan out as expected

ChannelThunder I don't mind burning the candle at both ends every once in a while, especially if it's worth it, I think I'll wait and see what the later models throw out before deciding, when I have a chance I'll do a comparison to see how latest guidance compares with current observations.

CoventryWeather somewhere is going to get an absolute banger of a storm, the trend for the strongest storms to affect the southeast is a bit disappointing from my point of view but I'm still holding out hope for some kind of correction west, but it's getting to the point that this won't be the case, but you never know. Good luck to you either way The only question is do I chase or not? I have to be at work for 8am, and the storms don't get going until late evening and into the early hours, and I'll have to travel, decisions decisions...

Alderc 2.0 sorry to hear that Alderc, they'll be more opportunities I'm sure! I'll be out with the camera so I'll try to record something, but hopefully you get to see something from your hospital bed. Wishing you a speedy recovery

Some great posts in here today and it nice to see the thread come alive so early in the season! Also thanks @Eagle Eye for your amazing contributions to this thread, the effort you put into you forecasts is much appreciated and I'm sure I speak for many of us on here, good luck for tomorrow night, but not too much of course, as that would mean you'd be stealing CS England's storms but seriously, I hope many areas can join in the fun tomorrow if all goes well.

kar999 Nice captures! what settings did you use if you don't mind me asking? It's annoying that the peaks in Aurora activity are in sync with the moon approaching full brightness, at least that how it appears. And if it's not the moon, it clouds obscuring the View. I'm hopeful that there will be a few more opportunities before the current active phase drops off. Here is a time lapse I shot the evening of the 16th. Unfortunately the most active part of the display was in a northwesterly direction, so the camera just about picked it up, the display starts around the halfway mark. 14 mm focal length, iso 1600, 1300 - 4 second exposures @ F2.8 Knowlton 16-9.mp4

Slate grey here, and has been since around 12pm, the UKv looks like it's already a little off with the amount of rain pushing out of France towards CS England, so all bets are off

Eagle Eye it looks like the first of the storms had developed over France and like you said, I hope that all the energy doesn't get used up before reaching the southeast! Good luck for later