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GRAND PRIZEMary PaceCedar Bluffs, Nebraska

This spectacular example of mammatus was photographed in Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska, on June 25, 2011, after a violent summer storm.

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Every spring, Weatherwise’s in-box is filled with spectacular photographs of meteorological events sent in by readers around the country. Entries range from

beautiful atmospheric phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis, to quintessential seasonal images such as ice floes, to dra-matic storms such as tornadoes. This year, the cloud has taken center stage among the winners of the contest. Our Grand Prize winner is one of the most spectacular ex-amples of mammatus clouds the judges have ever seen. The Grand Prize winner is followed closely by a the First Prize winner, which is a pair of photographs of a lenticu-lar cloud above Mount Rainier in Washing-ton state. The photographs, taken hours apart, provide a stark contrast between day and night with the common thread of the cloud tying the two together. Supercells, wall clouds, cirrus fall streaks, hole clouds, and unusual fog formations make up just some of the other winning cloud photo-graphs this year. Congratulations to these and all of our winners!

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SECOND PRIZEMarcus Prazniak

El Cerrito, California

Strong atmospheric distortions create a “Chinese lantern” effect as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean, photographed in Pacifica,

California, in summer 2011.

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FIRST PRIZETyler ModeBattle Ground, Washington

This day and night pair of photographs shows an unusually long-lasting lenticular cloud above Mount Rainier in Washington State, photographed in September 2011.

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SECOND PRIZESteven MartinPhoenix, Arizona

An unusually bright rainbow with a super-numerary bow photographed south of Taos, New Mexico, on September 2, 2006.

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THIRD PRIZEMike Garfield

Buffalo Grove, Illinois

An exceptionally warm and humid March day, along with a slight breeze off a still-cold Lake

Michigan, created a spectacular foggy view of the Chicago skyline.

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THIRD PRIZETony Laubach

Lakewood, Colorado

The sun sets through a supercell featuring arc clouds and a banded underside of an

anvil cloud, photographed near Tryon, Nebraska, on August 17, 2011.

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THIRD PRIZEJan CurtisGresham, Oregon

A single bolt of lightning traveling up and down a rain shaft, photographed just south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on September 13, 2011. The city lights of Santa Fe are seen reflected on the lower clouds.

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HONORABLE MENTIONRick Schmidt, Topeka, KansasA spectacular example of a mesocyclone outside Jamestown, Kansas, photographed on June 19, 2010.

HONORABLE MENTIONTracie Stier-Johnson, Cornelius, North CarolinaDistinct cirrus fallstreaks create an impressive hole cloud in Huntersville, North Carolina, photographed in December 2011.

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HONORABLE MENTIONMarcus Prazniak, El Cerrito, CaliforniaKelvin–Helmholtz waves make a rare and brief appearance over the Bay Area of California, photographed in the fall of 2011.

HONORABLE MENTIONNeva Anderson, St. Cloud, MinnesotaA windmill provides a striking contrast to a spectacular example of the Aurora Borealis, photographed north of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, on April 23, 2012.

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HONORABLE MENTIONDoug Kiesling, St. Cloud, MinnesotaIce forms a lily pad pattern on January 22, 2012, along the shore of Lake Superior below the Split Rock Light House in Northern Minnesota.

HONORABLE MENTIONMegan O’Leary, Sandwich, MassachusettsBoats are silhouetted at Collins Landing, Massachusetts, to spectacular effect as the sun burns through the fog.

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HONORABLE MENTIONMegan O’Leary, Sandwich, MassachusettsBoats are silhouetted at Collins Landing, Massachusetts, to spectacular effect as the sun burns through the fog.

HONORABLE MENTIONTony Laubach, Lakewood, ColoradoThe sun sets at the end of a stormy day near Pratt, Kansas, on May 20, 2011.

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would like to thank the following companies for helping to sponsor the 2012 Photography Contest:

AccuWeather.comSkywatch Services

Tempest ToursAmerican Meteorological Society

www.Sky-Fire.TVwww.WeatherVideoHD.TV

A special thanks to everyone who entered.We look forward to next year’s contest;

check for details in upcoming issuesand on our Web site,

www.weatherwise.org.

2013

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2013

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