The Categories for 2023
Storm Photo of the Year
$750 Grand Prize / 20×30 Metal Print of Winning Photo / Tempest WeatherFlow
$200 Second Place
$100 Third Place
The single, best photo of 2022. All photos submitted to this category will be reviewed for the short list, narrowed down to 30 Selections that will be critiqued on video, then cut down to 10 Finalists, again critiqued on video and finally the winner will be announced. Submit as many images as you like!
Storm Photographer of the Year
$200 Second Place
$100 Third Place
This award encompasses a body of work produced in 2022. Photographers will submit 10 images, captured on at least SEVEN different dates, to showcase the best of their portfolio for that year. Entries will be narrowed down to 12 Selections that will be critiqued on video, cut down to the 6 Finalists, again critiqued on video and finally the winner will be announced. Only one submission per photographer.
Tornado Photo of the Year
$500 Grand Prize / 20×30 Metal Print of Winning Photo
$200 Second Place
$100 Third Place
The best tornado photo of 2022 with special guest judges Nick Drieschman from Extreme Tornado Tours and Pecos Hank. All photos submitted to this category will be reviewed for the short list, narrowed down to 30 Selections that will be critiqued on video, then cut down to 10 Finalists, again critiqued on video and finally the winner will be announced. Submit as many images as you like!
Lightning Photo of the Year
This is new for 2023 and will be a trial run to see how it does! As always, this is anything lightning related, from sprites, to spider lightning, in-cloud, upward and of course, cloud-to-ground.
Photojournalism Award
$150 Grand Prize
A brand new, experimental award for 2023! We want to expand our contest to other categories to not limit the photographers out there who capture images unplanned, on the run, from inside the car, people in the foreground, storm damage and more. It’s a broad topic and we are curious to see what kind of images we will receive!
The Basic Rules
All Photos Must Have Been Taken in 2022
RAW files will be required before finalists announced.
No composites, digital art or stacks are allowed at this time. Panoramas are okay!
The Judges
For 2023, we return with our three main judges, Mike, Linda and Dennis, plus a couple guest judges for the Tornado Phot of the Year award! Being a part of our contest as a judge requires a lot of work, between the critiques and voting, so we are eternally grateful to them for helping out!

Nick Drieschman