U.S. Weather in 16 Prize-Winning Images

By Climate Central

And the winners are (drum roll please) … a telescope, the Smoky Mountains and a stormy night sky.

That seemingly random list represents just some of the scenes captured by the winners of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Weather in Focus” photo contest, which sought to acknowledge the best snapshots of weather or the science used to forecast the weather, water availability and flooding.

The winners across four categories came from a total of 2,000 entries of photographs taken between January 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015. They range from a train plowing through swirling snow to a tornado churning up dust in Iowa to the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.

Check them all out in the gallery below:

Slideshow

You May Also Like:
Extreme Weather More Frequent with Global Warming
Panel Warns of ‘Catastrophic’ Gap in Weather Satellite Data