These are the best weather pictures

Anyone living in the plains of Switzerland will only see one rather dull weather phenomenon at the moment: fog. But there are beautiful and sometimes spectacular weather conditions elsewhere. The Royal Meteorological Society has selected the best weather images as part of the Standard Chartered Weather Photographer of the Year 2024 competition. Here is a selection of some of the most beautiful photos.

winner

Chinese photographer Wang Xin successfully captured an extremely rare weather phenomenon. Sprites are bolts of lightning that shoot out of clouds up to 100 kilometers high during thunderstorms. They often resemble flashing flames or mushroom clouds.

The picture shows an opera singer performing “Madama Butterfly” in the open air on the east bank of Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria. Due to its proximity to the mountains, Bregenz is one of the wettest places on Lake Constance, with more than 1600 mm of precipitation per year.

Photographer Nur Syaireen Natasya Binti Azaharin actually wanted to capture the sunrise in East Java, Indonesia. Instead, she encountered a smoking volcano high above low-altitude stratus clouds and filmed the scene with her smartphone.

Photos taken by local photographer Gerson Turelly show the center of Porto Alegre, Brazil, during the devastating floods in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the spring of 2024. The street in the photo has been transformed into a waterway on which a young man is kayaking. This is on the way to rescue stranded people in the worst-hit areas.

Second place in main category

Second place went to British photographer Andy Gray, who captured the morning hoarfrost in the Derwent Valley. “The longer you stare at it, the more you see,” one juror said.

Third place in main category

As a shower approached a group of rocky islands off the Isle of Wight on the south coast of England, photographer Jamie Russell sensed the possibility of a rainbow. His instincts paid off: He launched his drone and captured this spectacular weather combination.

Finalists in all categories

This photo by David Hendry shows Loch Ard in Scotland's Trossachs National Park in early October sunshine. In the fall, large bodies of water often remain warmer for longer than the surrounding land, causing water at the surface to evaporate.

Iranian photographer Majid Hojati captured the dry Lake Urmia, which was once the second largest saltwater lake in the world and the largest wetland in Iran. Severe drought and human withdrawal of water have caused water levels to plummet. The lake's water volume has dropped by 95% since the beginning of this century.

At dawn, the family hangs dyed cotton towels to dry. The scene is peaceful, but the cracked earth in Zuo Zuowei's smartphone image is a reminder of the vast amounts of water required to grow cotton. One cotton T-shirt requires approximately 2,700 liters of water. Most cotton is grown in Myanmar's “dry zones” – where droughts are a daily occurrence.

Andrea Kleene photographed these ice-covered branches in February 2021 after a particularly intense freezing rain. This phenomenon occurs when supercooled rain hits a cold surface. The water droplets spread and freeze relatively slowly, forming a clear, dense layer of ice. While this creates such a beautiful scene, it also creates dangers: for example, if the ice on the power lines becomes too heavy and they collapse. Or when it lies invisible on the ground and causes people to fall.

According to official sources, a factory in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, located in the foothills of the Ural Mountains, was attacked by a drone. The President of the Republic, Radi Khabirov, said on Telegram that the windows of an energy company were destroyed and that two other enemy drones attacked industrial areas. No damage or casualties were caused. Ufa, the capital of the Republic, is more than 1,300 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border.