For our SIXTH ANNUAL Storm Photos of the Year contest (AKA The Stormys), there were six categories to enter: Photo of the Year, Tornado Photo of the Year, Lightning Photo of the Year, The Photojournalism Award, Solar Storm Award and Photographer of the Year. The first five sought to find the most incredible, single photos taken from the prior year in their respective categories. And the sixth (portfolio) award looked to recognize the achievement of putting together an amazing set of 10 images taken in 2025.

All photos were taken in 2025 as this annual contest is geared to celebrating the prior calendar year in storm photography.

The level of excellence this year was incredible! Especially the Photographer of the Year category, where we saw tremendous growth and utterly brutal judging decisions because so many were deserving of winning.

We are so incredibly grateful for everyone who entered and made this the best year yet for our contest. Our mission from the start has always been to highlight all the passionate and hard-working storm chasers and photographers around the world, who never before had a spotlight on their specific niche of imagery. The feedback we’ve received about this contest has been so heart warming and reassuring. This is mostly a passion project and to hear that it’s been inspirational, helpful and motivating, makes all the hard work worth it.

The winners were announced on March 27th at 1pm Eastern Time. You can see all the winning images below!

David Baxter won Photo of the Year

Jakob McMillan won Tornado Photo of the Year

Sean Parker won Lightning Photo of the Year

Paige Vincent won The Photojournalism Award

Lauren Baca won Photographer of the Year

Kyle Schroeder won the Solar Storm Award

Prizes include cash, metal prints, sponsored products and trophies. All of these can be seen on our frontpage!

The Stormys will return in early 2027 to judge photos from 2026.

Congrats to all and thank you for your support!

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