The world's weather has been known to put on quite a show – from dramatic lightning forks and swirling mist to striking ice formations. And the Royal Meteorological Society’s Weather Photographer of the Year 2021 awards bring together the best images of Mother Nature doing her thing. We share the finalists, runners-up and winners from the Main, Mobile and Young Photographer categories.

Siberian Lake Baikal – the world's largest freshwater lake by volume – looks stunning from most angles, but this shot is extra special. It was taken in the winter of 2019, and it captures a crack in the lake's icy surface that's been covered in crystal-like hoar frost.

Another jaw-dropping snap of Russia's Lake Baikal, this one shows a curious ice sculpture. This teensy chunk of ice on the lake's surface would have been whipped into shape by wind, and by melting and freezing water. The result is a glittering, diamond-like formation.

Photographer Alireza Rahmani was in a park at the foot of Abidar mountain in Iran, on the day he took this shot – but ultimately it wasn't the peak itself that featured in his winning photograph. Just before Rahmani got out of his car, it began to rain heavily. The image of this umbrella-wrangling person in a popping green coat, as seen through his rain-fogged car window, captured his imagination.

You can almost feel the snow on your face as you pore over this shot from Alireza Shekouhian. It's taken on a platform of Wolfenbüttel train station in northern Germany on a chilly January night, and the swirl of illuminated snowflakes make a beautiful pattern overhead.

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A spectacular phenomena is captured in this photo by Manisha Narkedamilli. A "22-degree halo" is formed by refracted light – a result of teensy hexagonal ice crystals on cirrus clouds – and it's so named because the radius of the circle is about 22 degrees. The photo was taken in the city of Hyderabad, India.

Corfe Castle looks very handsome indeed in this photograph by Pete Scott. It's seen rising up beneath a hazy fog bow on an early June morning. Fog bows are formed when tiny water droplets from fog diffract the light, creating an ethereal white arch.

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Few weather events are as dramatic as a tornado – and this one is captured in Dora, New Mexico by Kyle Russell Allen Graves. Initially headed for Colorado, the photographer changed course on instinct, tailing a supercell that eventually spawned this spectacular tornado.

An early walk in Richmond Park, London rewarded photographer Sue Moscow and her teenage daughter with this breathtaking scene. The photo was taken in April 2020, when the country was in lockdown, and it shows the park's gloriously still Beverley Brook as it's kissed by mist in the morning light.

In the autumn of 2020, the waters of the River Ouse rose and flooded the quaint city of York in northern England. Anxious to highlight the impact of the flooding, photographer Andrew McCaren journeyed to the city to photograph the effects. The swallowed road signs and swimming flock of Canadian geese show how high the water levels were.

The mountains alone would be enough to make this scene a spectacular one – but these striking lenticular clouds, tinged orange by the sun, really steal the show. They were papped by Angela Lambourn who was out hiking near the town of Nerja, in Spain's Costa del Sol, on a mid-winter's day.

Sunshine and showers came together to create this magical burst of light over the Quiraing landslip, on Scotland's Isle of Skye. The photo was taken in October 2019 and a lone sheep is the unassuming subject, with mossy peaks rising in the background.

Craig Boehm is a veteran storm-chaser and photographer, having been on the tail of the world's most dramatic weather for the last nine years. But even he thought this one was something special. This sweeping supercell never bloomed a tornado, but it did drop hailstones the size of baseballs.

Clouds put on a jaw-dropping display for Danijel Palčić, the photographer behind this beautiful image. These cotton-ball-like forms are known as mammatus clouds, and they came together over the rugged isle of Pag in Croatia.

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Looking almost like a colourful phoenix in flight, these clouds formed over the Sanding Temple in Tibet and were captured by photographer Gesang Jimei. This psychedelic phenomenon relies on the perfect positioning of the sun and the presence of wispy cirrus clouds.

Although it looks like something from outer space, this photograph was actually taken in photographer Ian Wade's back garden, in Bristol, England. The galaxy-like phenomenon was created by bubbles forming in the ice in Wade's pond.

Photographer Stavros Kesedakis and his storm-chaser friend almost gave up on following this supercell, as they were convinced it wouldn't produce a tornado. However, it ended up spawning something even more surprising. These flat, pancake-like clouds loved the camera and contrast beautifully with the pale orange sky.

Sachin Jagtap planned carefully to get this photo of the 'ring of fire' solar eclipse in the summer of 2021. Changeable weather made an incredible shot like this look unlikely, but photographer Jagtap rose at 3am to journey to the Great Beds Lighthouse in New Jersey, USA. Despite some low-hanging cloud, the results were spectacular.

Photographer Nathan Myhrvold went on an expedition to find sprites in the wilds of Wyoming, and he found just that near Lake DeSmet. The bold, red electrical discharges look a bit like a firework display, or perhaps a cluster of jellyfish in an inky sea.

Photographer Jiming Zhang made a pilgrimage to an altitude of 15,748 feet (4,800m) to take this awesome photograph. It depicts Sapu Mountain in Tibet, which had been cloaked by clouds for most of Zhang's journey. Happily, it emerged just in time and was set aflame in hues of orange and red by the setting sun.

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A series of ice halos – formed when light refracts through ice crystals – manifest in this stunning image by photographer Kevin Förster. It was snapped in snowy surrounds near Fichtelberg mountain, on the border between Germany and the Czech Republic.

The imposing shelf cloud that stars in this image almost looks like a UFO. It's seen descending over the coastal town of Umag in Croatia and was taken by photographer Maja Kraljik, who rose at the crack of dawn to capture the dramatic scene.

Even without the fog bow, this image – which shows Scotland in the iron grip of winter – would be a stunner. It's taken by Melvin Nicholson at Rannoch Moor, whose rugged expanse is blanketed in snow, and a lone tree is framed by the phenomenon.

The glowing sunrise, the heavy drapes of mist, the stark winter trees – there's a lot that makes this image one to pore over. It was taken on a biting cold morning at Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, England and the all-consuming fog that dominates the photo is known as "radiation fog".

The sheer delight captured in this photograph by Muhammad Amdad Hossain is enough to put a smile on anyone's face. It was taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh whose monsoon climate brings about heavy rainfall in the wet season. Climate change poses a very real threat to the country but, in this heart-warming shot, children are finding joy playing in the floodwaters.

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This haunting image showcases the Newport Transporter Bridge, which crosses the River Usk in Newport, Wales. The photographer, Itay Kaplan, scoped out the fog-cloaked scene with his drone before setting up his camera. The result, which sees a bridge hazy in tones of candy-floss pink and blue, is wonderfully dramatic.

Nothing short of breathtaking, this photograph sees a perfect rainbow arch neatly over the tea fields of Tangerang Selatang, Indonesia. Expert eyes will also spot an additional phenomenon known as supernumeraries: faint bands of colour on the rainbow's inner edge.

A worthy runner-up in the Mobile Category, this snap whisks us away to South Beach in Greystones, Ireland. Photographer Susan Kyne Andrews was walking her dog on this stretch of ochre sand when the rain swept in. Happily, after the shower came this spectacular double rainbow.

It's not hard to see why this awesome shot took the top spot in the Mobile Category. Peering through the fog, on a chilly morning in December 2020, is the hulking form of Qasr al-Hosn, a watchtower and one of the oldest landmarks in Abu Dhabi. The fact that it was taken on a mobile phone makes it all the more spectacular.

A beautiful image with a beautiful name, this photograph shows how the simplest of subjects can have a big impact. Fynn Gardner took the photograph in Frenchs Forest in New South Wales, Australia, moments after heavy rain. The tiny droplets on the vivid green leaf represent the calm after the storm.

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Evoking scenes from The Wizard of Oz, this striking photo came out top in the Young Weather Photographer category. It captures a supercell rippling over the Great Plains, with a smattering of red farm buildings looking rather diminutive below. The photo's grey-blue tone is extra haunting too.

It's hardly surprising that this eye-catching photograph was the people's choice. Photographer Serge Zaka went to great lengths to capture this image, driving some 300 miles (483km) and waiting for eight hours. And it was worth it. The lightning looks seriously dramatic under the pillowy clouds and over the super-still waters of the Bay of Cannes, France.

A truly quirky photograph and a deserving first runner-up, this image captures the photographer himself, Evgeny Borisov, on a boat amid Lake Kok-Kol in Russia. He used a quadcopter, which soared above him, taking in the surface of the lake, which was left with teal streaks as the snow began to fall.

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This epic shot by Giulio Montini takes the very top spot. Bands of fog-scattered sunlight – known fittingly as crepuscular rays – beam down on the scene, which was snapped on a hilltop in the Italian town of Airuno. Amid the heady light and trees, it's just about possible to make out the River Adda beating its course through the countryside.

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