Standard Chartered Weather Photographer of the Year 2025: Electrifying shots

by Kirsty McCabe, FRMetS

From towering supercells to split-second lightning strikes, storms create the most dramatic weather photographs. We’ve rounded up ten of the most striking images from our annual weather photography competition that showcase the awe-inspiring power, beauty and drama of thunderstorms.

Electric Blackpool © Stephen Cheatley (2018 Winner)

Multiple lightning strikes were captured over Blackpool in northwest England, illuminating the night sky over the famous promenade. Lightning is essentially a giant spark that occurs within a cloud, between clouds or between the clouds and the ground, usually associated with tall convective cumulonimbus clouds. An electric charge builds up within a cloud thanks to the millions of collisions between ice particles and water droplets. Every second on Earth, 100 lightning bolts strike the planet. That’s about 8 million strikes per day, and 3 billion a year, on average.

Hail Shower Over Jodrell Bank © Mark Boardman (2016)

A sudden hail shower engulfed the UK's Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire. The setting sun casts a warm glow, a welcome respite from the cold northwesterly wind that blew in the dramatic shower cloud. In simple terms, hail is solid precipitation in the form of balls or pieces of ice known as hailstones, which form within powerful cumulonimbus or thunderstorm clouds. In order for hail to form, the temperature at the top of the cumulonimbus cloud must be lower than -20°C, with a large proportion of the cloud below freezing. Hailstones can range in size from small peas-sized hail to large grapefruit-sized hailstone several centimetres in diameter.

Overhead Mammatus Over Beach Huts © Jamie McBean (2023 Young Winner)

Bulbous mammatus clouds, such as these ones captured over a row of beach huts in Herne Bay, UK, are often associated with thunderstorms, typically to the rear of the anvil cloud after severe weather has cleared. Turbulence within giant storm clouds causes bulges to emerge from the base of the cumulonimbus. The name mammatus comes from their distinctive shape — the Latin "mamma" translates to "udder" or "breast". The setting sun in this shot highlights this amazing mammatus display, giving them a golden glow.

The Red Terror © Tori Jane Ostberg (2020)

In the spring and summer, warm air from the Gulf of Mexico meets cold air from Canada, leading to the formation of severe storms called supercell thunderstorms that can produce the most violent tornadoes—rapidly rotating columns of air that extend from the base of a storm cloud to the ground. With top wind speeds of around 300mph, flying debris from tornadoes can cause catastrophic damage. The rating scale for tornadoes—the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale—is based entirely on the damage they cause. This picture shows an incredible EF2 tornado tearing through a rural Colorado field after destroying a home.

Country Supercell © Sara Bruce (2023)

Well-defined supercell thunderstorms like this one are potentially the most dangerous type of convective storm clouds and are unique from other thunderstorms because they have a deep and persistent rotating updraft called a mesocyclone. As a result, they produce severe weather, including damaging winds, huge hail, flash flooding and sometimes tornadoes. Supercells often exhibit a striking visual appearance, due to the strong dynamics within the storm. The smooth appearance of some of the lower clouds shows where air that is not buoyant is being sucked into the storm by the powerful rotating updraught above.

Nature and Boat © Htet Phyo Wai (2022)

In this dramatic image from Myanmar, a lone fishing boat braces itself for an approaching thunderstorm. The shelf cloud captured is a common feature of storms with strong wind gust. As the shelf cloud passed over Htet, he would have noticed a rapid drop in temperature, gusty winds and the onset of rain. Shelf clouds form at the boundary between downdraughts inside the storm and the warm air inflow to the storm. When a downdraught reaches the surface, it spreads out and forms a “gust front” where it meets the warmer air flowing into the storm. The denser warm air is forced upwards over the cold air, condensing as it rises and cools to form the shelf cloud.

Waterspout in Barcelona © Carlos Castillejo Balsera (2022)

A waterspout is a rotating column of air that forms over water or moves from land to water. Violent tornadic waterspouts, such as this example from Barcelona in Spain, have the same characteristics as land tornadoes and develop from cumulonimbus clouds or thunderstorms. Columns of rotating air extend downwards from the cloud and touch the water surface, often accompanied by strong winds, high seas, large hail and frequent lightning. 

Lightning from an Isolated Storm over Cannes Bay © Serge Zaka (2021, Winner Public Favourite)

This lone thunderstorm was photographed on a full-moon night over the famous Cannes Bay in the south of France. This thunderstorm unleashed several thunderbolts in the clear sky under the stars. There was no rain, no parasite clouds, just the calm of the night and the sound of thunder. During a lightning strike, massive electrical currents heat up the air by around 30,000 degrees in an instant. This makes it expand rapidly and creates a pressure/sound wave which we hear as thunder. 

Sprites Dancing in the Dark Night © Xin Wang (2024 Winner) 

This photograph showcases rare red sprite lightning, which only lasts a few milliseconds and occurs high above thunderstorm clouds. If you want to capture a sprite, you need to be far enough away from the storm that you can see its top. Like lightning, sprites occur due to electrical discharge, but much higher up—approximately 50 miles (80km) above the ground in the mesosphere. The red colour comes from changes in the energy of the electrons of nitrogen atoms.

Ellie Cloud © Kathryn Parent (2018, Public Favourite)

This image was taken in South Kansas on a storm-chasing holiday and reminded the photographer of the mammoth character from the movie Ice Age, hence the name “Ellie Cloud”. The phenomenon of seeing the shape of objects, in this case in the clouds, is called pareidolia.

Whether you have been caught in a storm or simply love to watch from a safe distance, we would love to see your shots of the atmosphere in action. 2025 marks the tenth year of our annual Standard Chartered Weather Photographer of the Year competition. And from 10 April to 19 June 2025, you can submit your best weather or climate photographs. Anyone can enter, amateur or professional, young or old. Click below for full details of the competition and the prizes. 

ENTER THE 2025 COMPETITION NOW! 

We can’t wait to see your electrifying entries!