December 15, 2016 4:00 AM EST
F rom 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—EPA 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 A truck drives through floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, N.C., on Oct. 12, 2016. Chuck Burton—AP An air tanker drops fire retardant on the Blue Cut wildfire in Lytle Creek, California, Aug. 16, 2016. Ringo Chiu—AFP/Getty Images Autumnal colored landscape in Cologne, Germany, on Nov. 4, 2016 Henning Kaiser—AFP/Getty Images People 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/Reuters Windmills are seen through the morning mist rising from a field in Sehnde near Hanover, northern Germany, on Sept. 22, 2016. Julian Stratenschulte—AFP/Getty Images A meteorite-shaped cloud floats in the sky at nightfall in Beijing, on March 7, 2016. VCG/Getty Images Night 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 Images A 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 Images This 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/AP High 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 Images View 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 Images A tornado near Wynnewood, Oklahoma, on May 9, 2016. Hayden Mahan—AP The 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 Images Russian 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—Reuters Clouds cover the mountains of Petion Ville rain fall in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, on Oct. 3, 2016. Hector Retamal—AFP/Getty Images Snow covers the landscape near Braunschweig, central Germany, on Jan. 18, 2016. Julian Stratenschulte—AFP/Getty Images An 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, 2016 NASA As 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—AP Storm chasing photographers underneath a rotating supercell storm system in Maxwell, Nebraska on Sept. 3, 2016. Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images A 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 Images An approaching storm looming over the French riviera city of Nice, in southeastern France, on July 14, 2016. Valery Hache—AFP/Getty Images Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images When 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—Reuters Lightning strikes behind wind turbines during a thunderstorm in Goerlitz, Germany, on Aug. 28, 2016. Florian Gaertner—Photothek/Getty Images Waves crash over Newhaven Lighthouse on the south coast of England on Feb. 8, 2016. Glyn Kirk—AFP/Getty Images More Must-Reads from TIME Why Trump’s Message Worked on Latino Men What Trump’s Win Could Mean for Housing The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 Sleep Doctors Share the 1 Tip That’s Changed Their Lives Column: Let’s Bring Back Romance What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024 Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision