Weather Photographer of the Year 2018 - Winners Announced!

The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) in association with AccuWeather have selected the winners for this year’s Weather Photographer of the Year competition. After an extremely competitive year with over 4,000 photographs entered, the winners were finally announced at WeatherLive 2018! Please find the winners below and their categories:

• The Public’s Favourite: 'Ellie Cloud' by Kathryn Parent
• Winner – under 16 category: 'Fog Wave' by Hoang Viet Nguyen Phung
• 3rd place – 17 and over: 'Gettin’ the messages' by Neil Barr
• 2nd place – 17 and over: 'Two times one train station' by Nikolay Schegolev
• 1st place – 17 and over: 'Descending the Arete Du Midi' by Dan Matthewman 
• Overall Weather Photographer of the Year 2018: 'Electric Blackpool' by Stephen Cheatley

The search for the 2018 Weather Photographer of the Year began earlier this year with a call for the best photographs depicting weather from around the world. Entries in two categories – under-16s and 17 and older - range from weather phenomena such as clouds, lightning, rain, fog or snow through to the impact of weather on humans, cities and the natural landscape.

Almost 4,000 photographs were submitted, creating a challenging task for the selectors to narrow down the best images to be awarded prizes and be part of the Weather Photographer of the Year exhibition. The selectors included:

• Liz Bentley; Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society
• Trish Mikita; Vice President Digital Strategy AccuWeather
• Adrian Theze; Professional Photographer and winner of WPotY 2017
• Paul Kingston; Photographer and Camera Op at North News and Pictures
• Matt Clark; photo editor of RMetS Weather magazine

Commenting on the short-listed images Trish Mikita, Vice President of Accuweather, said “It was an honor to be a selector in this year’s competition and to see the images that people from around the world submitted, representing their unique observations and perceptions of weather,” she said. “The best photographs can so vividly capture both the grand majesty of weather events and their profound impact on our lives.”