December 20, 2020 – The 13 winners of the incredibly popular World Meteorological Organization annual competition have just been announced, and two fine pieces of Croatia weather photography are among them. These spectacular images of Croatia weather photography show all 9 Croatian photographs which reached the final in 2020 and all 10 Croatian finalists who similarly stunned the global audience in 2019

Croatia weather photography: the two newly announced winners from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Sandro Puncet Photo taken: Losinj island

Photographer: Zrinka Balabanic Photo taken: Pag island

Thanks to its popularity as a tourist destination, lots of people are now used to seeing beautiful photos of Croatia. Although, the images they usually see are of idyllic beaches, cloudless skies, stunning nature and turquoise blue seas. But, as anyone who knows the country will tell you - and as these photos show - Croatia isn't always like that.

Croatia weather photography: the two newly announced runners-up from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Šime Barešić Photo taken: Drage, Pakostane

Photographer: Mislav Bilic Photo taken: Lapad Peninsula, Dubrovnik

Out of season, Croatia can experience vastly different weather conditions to those advertised in travel brochures and blogs. And, whenever there's a spectacular weather occurrence, usually there's a photographer out there, braving the elements, trying to capture it.

Over recent years, some of the best Croatia weather photography has featured in the annual competition organised by the World Meteorological Organization. 2020 has been no different.

The other five Croatian finalists from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Šime Barešić Photo taken: Drage, Pakostane

Photographer: Sandro Puncet Photo taken: Losinj island

Photographer: Zoran Stanko Photo taken: Geisler Alm, Dolomites, Italy

Photographer: Maja Kraljik Photo taken: Umag, Istria

Photographer: Igor Popovic Photo taken: Rijeka

The winners of this year's competition have just been announced and the two fantastic examples of Croatia weather photography within the top 13 will take their place in the 2021 World Meteorological Organization calendar.

The 10 Croatian finalists from the 2019 competition
Photographer: Danica Sičič Photo taken: Srobreč, Dalmatia

Photographer: Romeo Ibrišević Photo taken: Plitvice Lakes National Park

Photographer: Božan Štambuk Photo taken: Bundek park, Zagreb

Photographer: Miroslava Novak Photo taken: Pribislavec, Međimurje

As well as the two winners, two further examples of Croatia weather photography came in the runner-up category, of which there were 12 in total.

Photographer: Francesca Delbianco Photo taken: Zagreb

Photographer: Ivica Brlić Photo taken: Sava river, Davor, near Slavonski Brod

Photographer: Nataša Šafar Photo taken: Rečica, near Karlovac

Photographer: Romeo Ibrišević Photo taken: Plitvice Lakes National Park

Over 1000 photographs from all over the world were entered in the 2020 competition. The submissions were narrowed down to a final selection of 70 contenders. As TCN reported back at the start of October, no less than 9 examples of Croatia weather photography made it into the final 70, taken by 7 Croatian photographers.

Photographer: Danijel Palčić Photo taken: Pag island

Photographer: Aleksandar Gospic Photo taken: Ražanac

Croatia regularly punches well above its weight in the annual competition, as we can see from these 10 examples of incredible Croatia weather photography that were among the finalists in 2019.

All images courtesy World Meteorological Organisation

Our Colours of Croatia series aims to bring you the many 'shades' of Croatia through the lens of different photographers; this week we bring you storm chaser Sandro Puncet.

Some people are so afraid of the storms and usually their first reaction is to run back home and pray to God they will survive. And no, these people are not called ''the kids''.

On the other hand, there are those who after having seen the first storm lighting, turn into Indiana Jones, grab their million euro camera and a raincoat, run outside and take the most spectacular photos.
And yes, these people never forget that adventurous kid hiding inside of us.

The activity of chasing the storms has been making a huge comeback in the last couple of years and the photos almost instantly go viral all over the social media. David Hoadley, born in 1938, is usually cited as the first storm chaser who chased the North Dakota storms in 1956 in order to collect data for the weather offices and airports.
The unveiling the process of how the thunderstorm is created, how it changes due to the weather conditions, and what is left after the cumulonimbus and other cloud structures disappear, is the main draw for the photographers hungry for adventures.
There is also a smaller number of the storm chasers who go as far as intercepting tropical cyclones and waterspouts.

Spectacular storms in Dubrovnik drew the attention of a special team named “Storm Chasers Dubrovnik”. Daniel Pavlinovic, Boris Basic and Hrvoje Batinic, who form the team emphasise the fact that the photographers interested in this activity need to know the basics of the meteorology in order to understand it and predict the storm behavior. An advanced degree in the meteorology is not required though, and this remains a reason why so many photographers are turning to “storm chasing” activities since the Internet data and up-to-the-minute radar provides a lot of information and makes this activity more accessible to the wider public.

If you would like to have a glance at the thunderstorms that happened in Dubrovnik while you were counting sheep in your bed not being able to fall asleep, you can follow Storm Chasers Dubrovnik on their Facebook page and applaud to their bravery and stunning results.