A method of continuously casting metal strip comprising: assembling a pair of counter-rotatable casting rolls having casting surfaces laterally positioned to form a gap at a nip between the casting rolls through which thin strip less than 3 mm in thickness can be cast; assembling a metal delivery system capable of forming a casting pool supported on the casting surfaces of the casting rolls above the nip with side dams adjacent the ends of the nip to confine the casting pool; counter rotating the casting rolls to form metal shells on the casting surfaces of the casting rolls that are brought together at the nip to deliver thin strip downwardly; moving the thin strip from the casting rolls through a hot rolling mill to reduce the thickness of the thin strip to a desired thickness and then to a cooling section, the cooling section having a plurality of coolant discharge ports configured to discharge a flow of coolant along the thin strip, the plurality of coolant discharge ports being arranged into a plurality of rows each extending at least partially across a width of the cooling section and configured to substantially cool a full width of the thin strip, where each coolant discharge port is adapted to independently cool a portion of the thin strip across the width of the thin strip, where a first row of the plurality of rows is divided into zones, each of the zones including at least one of the plurality of coolant discharge ports; initially sensing the temperature of the thin strip at a first plurality of locations across the width of the thin strip prior to the first row to determine a temperature distribution across the width of the thin strip, and producing a sensor signal corresponding to a sensed temperature at each of the first plurality of locations; individually controlling the cooling across the thin strip by way of the coolant discharge port or the plurality coolant discharge ports in each zone of the first row using the temperature distribution determined in the step of initially sensing for the purpose of achieving a substantially uniform temperature substantially across the width of the thin strip; after achieving a substantially uniform temperature substantially across the width of the thin strip, substantially cooling the width having a substantially uniform temperature to achieve a desired microstructure extending substantially across the width of the thin strip; characterised in that: said initially sensing the temperature of the thin strip at the first plurality of locations occurs downstream of the hot rolling mill; and in that: said first row of the plurality of rows is divided into three or more zones. assembling a pair of counter-rotatable casting rolls having casting surfaces laterally positioned to form a gap at a nip between the casting rolls through which thin strip less than 3 mm in thickness can be cast; assembling a metal delivery system capable of forming a casting pool supported on the casting surfaces of the casting rolls above the nip with side dams adjacent the ends of the nip to confine the casting pool; counter rotating the casting rolls to form metal shells on the casting surfaces of the casting rolls that are brought together at the nip to deliver thin strip downwardly; moving the thin strip from the casting rolls through a hot rolling mill to reduce the thickness of the thin strip to a desired thickness and then to a cooling section, the cooling section having a plurality of coolant discharge ports configured to discharge a flow of coolant along the thin strip, the plurality of coolant discharge ports being arranged into a plurality of rows each extending at least partially across a width of the cooling section and configured to substantially cool a full width of the thin strip, where each coolant discharge port is adapted to independently cool a portion of the thin strip across the width of the thin strip, where a first row of the plurality of rows is divided into zones, each of the zones including at least one of the plurality of coolant discharge ports; initially sensing the temperature of the thin strip at a first plurality of locations across the width of the thin strip prior to the first row to determine a temperature distribution across the width of the thin strip, and producing a sensor signal corresponding to a sensed temperature at each of the first plurality of locations; individually controlling the cooling across the thin strip by way of the coolant discharge port or the plurality coolant discharge ports in each zone of the first row using the temperature distribution determined in the step of initially sensing for the purpose of achieving a substantially uniform temperature substantially across the width of the thin strip; after achieving a substantially uniform temperature substantially across the width of the thin strip, substantially cooling the width having a substantially uniform temperature to achieve a desired microstructure extending substantially across the width of the thin strip; characterised in that: said initially sensing the temperature of the thin strip at the first plurality of locations occurs downstream of the hot rolling mill; and in that: said first row of the plurality of rows is divided into three or more zones.