From hurricanes and blizzards to blistering hot days and massive tornadoes, 2016 offered weather photographs ranging from the devastating to the surprisingly beautiful.

The Best Weather Photos of 2016

Storm clouds dramatically illuminated by the setting sun on a corn field in Petersdorf, Germany, Aug. 21, 2016. Patrick Pleul—EPA

A truck drives through floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, N.C., on Oct. 12, 2016. Chuck Burton—AP

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

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

Tourists watch high waves of the Pacific Ocean pounding the coast in Vina del Mar city, Chile, on Jan. 25, 2016. Rodrigo Garrido-Reuters

An air tanker drops fire retardant on the Blue Cut wildfire in Lytle Creek, California, Aug. 16, 2016. Ringo Chiu—AFP/Getty Images

Texas, which won third place in weather.com's It's Amazing Out There Photo Contest. (Derek Burdney)

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

Mist rises off the water as a flooded building is pictured after Hurricane Matthew passes in Lumberton, North Carolina, October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

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.

Lightning strikes behind wind turbines during a thunderstorm in Goerlitz, Germany, on Aug. 28, 2016. Florian Gaertner-Photothek/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

The Milky Way is photographed over a dusty desert. (Sebastian Tontsch/Caters News)

A meteorite-shaped cloud floats in the sky at nightfall in Beijing, on March 7, 2016. VCG/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

A boy walks through a waterfall while playing in the water at The Yards Park in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2016. Jim Watson-AFP/Getty Images

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

Stunning aerials of Australia's coasts photographed by Gabriel Scanu. (Gabriel Scanu)

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

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

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

Storm chasing photographers underneath a rotating supercell storm system in Maxwell, Nebraska on Sept. 3, 2016. Josh Edelson-AFP/Getty Images

New South Wales, Australia, caught this amazing image from the top floor of her ten story building, located 150 miles above sea level - Australia's tallest private residence. (Andrea Evans/Solent News)

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

Waves crash over Newhaven Lighthouse on the south coast of England on Feb. 8, 2016. Glyn Kirk-AFP/Getty Images

A car is covered in ice after being left in a parking lot on the shore of Lake Erie in Hamburg, New York January 12, 2016. (John Normile/Getty Images)

New South Wales, Australia, caught this amazing image from the top floor of her ten story building, located 150 miles above sea level - Australia's tallest private residence. (Andrea Evans/Solent News)

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

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

A tornado near Wynnewood, Oklahoma, on May 9, 2016. Hayden Mahan—AP

Snow covers the landscape near Braunschweig, central Germany, on Jan. 18, 2016. Julian Stratenschulte—AFP/Getty Images

Baja, Mexico, where the Colorado river meets the pacific Ocean. (Jassen Todorov/ Caters News)

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

END18-DICIEMBRE-2016