Volcanic lightning is seen at an eruption of Mount Sakurajima, in this photo taken from Tarumizu city, Kagoshima prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Feb. 5, 2016.Kyodo/Reuters
From hurricanes and blizzards to blistering hot days and massive tornadoes, 2016 offered weather photographs ranging from the devastating to the surprisingly beautiful.
Hurricane Matthew left a path of destruction from the Caribbean to the Southeast U.S. Dry conditions mixed with breezy winds and blistering hot temperatures led to severely destructive wildfires in California, with flames blazing across thousands of acres of land, destroying homes and forests.
Despite some of the devastation we have faced, there were still moments that brought joy and beauty. From cooling off in a fountain on a hot day to building a snowman in the middle of Times Square in New York City, TIME takes a look back at the most memorable moments in weather from this year.
Storm clouds dramatically illuminated by the setting sun on a corn field in Petersdorf, Germany, Aug. 21, 2016. Patrick Pleul—EPAVolcanic lightning is seen at an eruption of Mount Sakurajima, in this photo taken from Tarumizu city, Kagoshima prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Feb. 5, 2016. Kyodo/ReutersA truck drives through floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, N.C., on Oct. 12, 2016. Chuck Burton—APAn air tanker drops fire retardant on the Blue Cut wildfire in Lytle Creek, California, Aug. 16, 2016. Ringo Chiu—AFP/Getty ImagesAutumnal colored landscape in Cologne, Germany, on Nov. 4, 2016 Henning Kaiser—AFP/Getty ImagesPeople watch the flooded Jinsha River at a sightseeing platform in Tiger Leaping Gorge, in Diqing, Yunnan Province, China, on July 15, 2016. China Stringer Network/ReutersWindmills are seen through the morning mist rising from a field in Sehnde near Hanover, northern Germany, on Sept. 22, 2016.Julian Stratenschulte—AFP/Getty ImagesA meteorite-shaped cloud floats in the sky at nightfall in Beijing, on March 7, 2016.VCG/Getty ImagesNight falls on Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota on Dec. 1, 2016 Scott Olson—Getty ImagesA general view of Tower Bridge and the city through the fog, seen from The View From The Shard in London, on Oct. 31, 2016. John Phillips—Getty ImagesThis aerial photo shows, destroyed homes, many burned down to the foundation the day after a wildfire in Gatlinburg, Tenn., on Nov. 29, 2016.Paul Efird—Knoxville News Sentinel/APHigh winds blowing off the North Sea force rainwater from fields back over the cliff edge at Huntcliff in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, England, on Jan. 14, 2016.Ian Forsyth—Getty ImagesView from the National school of Labeyi, that was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew, in the commune of Chadonyer, in Les Cayes, in the southwest of Haiti, on Oct. 16, 2016.Hector Retamal—AFP/Getty ImagesA tornado near Wynnewood, Oklahoma, on May 9, 2016. Hayden Mahan—APThe dried and cracked river beach of the Yangtze River in Yunyang county in Chongqing, China. The Chongqing weather station issued a red alert for high temperatures for 12 consecutive days from Aug. 14 to Aug. 24, 2016.
AFP/Getty ImagesRussian paratroopers jump past a rainbow from an IL-76 transport plane during a joint Serbian-Russian military training exercise "Slavic Brotherhood" in the town of Kovin, near Belgrade, Serbia, on Nov. 7, 2016. Marko Djurica—ReutersClouds cover the mountains of Petion Ville rain fall in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, on Oct. 3, 2016.Hector Retamal—AFP/Getty ImagesSnow covers the landscape near Braunschweig, central Germany, on Jan. 18, 2016. Julian Stratenschulte—AFP/Getty ImagesAn image captured by NASA’s Terra satellite of Hurricane Matthew as it makes landfall on southwestern Haiti as a category-4 storm—the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean nation in more than 50 years, Oct. 4, 2016NASAAs a spring storm makes its way through the region, a plane is refracted in the raindrops on a vehicle window as it approaches the Dane County Regional airport in Madison, Wis., on March 23, 2016.John Hart—APStorm chasing photographers underneath a rotating supercell storm system in Maxwell, Nebraska on Sept. 3, 2016. Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty ImagesA woman decorates a snowman in Times Square as all cars but emergency vehicles are banned from driving on the road in New York City on Jan. 23, 2016.Yana Paskova—Getty ImagesAn approaching storm looming over the French riviera city of Nice, in southeastern France, on July 14, 2016.Valery Hache—AFP/Getty ImagesJim Watson—AFP/Getty ImagesWhen the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this image of Heard Island, just the tip of Mawson Peak—the highest point on the island—was visible through the sheet of marine stratocumulus clouds swirling over this part of the Furious Fifties, May 3, 2016.Jeff Schmaltz—LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response/NASA Tourists watch high waves of the Pacific Ocean pounding the coast in Vina del Mar city, Chile, on Jan. 25, 2016. Rodrigo Garrido—ReutersLightning strikes behind wind turbines during a thunderstorm in Goerlitz, Germany, on Aug. 28, 2016.Florian Gaertner—Photothek/Getty ImagesWaves crash over Newhaven Lighthouse on the south coast of England on Feb. 8, 2016.Glyn Kirk—AFP/Getty Images
