You cannot sit down with nature and negotiate terms. Lets have a little less dust storm here and you can indulge in your rain storm there... throw in a couple of thunderbolts as well. It just doesn't work that way. The weather has its way of humbling mankind, silencing his ego and bringing him to his knees in respect and awe. The beauty transcends the impact, and its overwhelming power and dominance is forgiven when we look at it through images that capture this essence. This was what we had in mind when we compiled the best of Weather 2009 images:


Lightning illuminates the sky during a thunderstorm over the Swiss Federal Palace in Bern, Switzerland, July 17. (Michael Buholzer, Reuters)

A huge sandstorm engulfs the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 10. The storm, which was still raging hours after it started, disrupted flights at the city's King Khalid International airport, with weather authorities announcing that visibility would drop to zero. (Jad Saab, AP)



A boy covers his head with a cooking pot as he makes his way through a sand storm at the Chota Lahore refugee camp at Swabi in northwest Pakistan, June 3. The Pakistani armed forces had secured control over several key towns during the month-old campaign in the volatile northwestern region, but the fighting has uprooted some 3 million people, forcing them into refugee camps, and triggered suspected reprisal attacks elsewhere in the country. (Emilio Morenatti, AP)



The Sydney Opera House is shrouded in a cloud of orange dust Sept. 23, in Sydney, Australia. Severe wind storms in the west of New South Wales drove a dust cloud across the area, which engulfed Sydney and surrounding areas. (Brendon Thorne, Getty Images)



The early morning sun bursts through the trees as cooler temperatures bring on the autumn season at Dunham Massey on Oct. 12, Altrincham, England. (Christopher Furlong, Getty Images)



Early morning fog surrounds the Marchlins castle in Igis, in the Rhine valley, Switzerland, Oct. 30. (Arno Balzarini, AP)



A deer bellows as it forages for food in the early morning sun Oct. 12, Altrincham, England. Shortening daylight hours and cooler weather brings on the rutting season for Red and Fallow deer herds in Britain. (Christopher Furlong, Getty Images)



Max, a Chesapeake Bay dog, leaps in the air March 11, biting at flying snow thrown from a snow blower operated by his owner, Tom Leiferman in Jamestown, N.D. (The Jamestown Sun, AP)



A car stands in the midst of a snow-covered landscape, Oct. 18, in Rehtobel, Switzerland. During the weekend the snow line came down to an altitude of 1,900 feet. (Ennio Leanza, AP)



The sun rises in Mackerel Cove on Bailey Island near Harpswell, Maine, Jan. 29 where fishermen's skiffs wait out the winter on the shore. The region received several inches of snow followed by a coating of freezing rain. (Robert F. Bukaty, AP)



Fog surrounds the landscape around the town of Kerns in central Switzerland, Jan. 13. (Urs Flueeler, AP)



Waves batter the harbor wall on Nov. 22, in Porthcawl, Wales. As fresh gale force winds and heavy rain sweeps across the UK, a major rescue operation is continuing after severe weather conditions caused flooding cutting off villages and towns in England's Lake District. (Matt Cardy, Getty Images)



Muslim pilgrims run for cover as heavy rain streams down a road in the holy city of Mecca on Nov. 25. An estimated 2.5 million Muslims converged on Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage, as workers toiled round the clock to complete construction projects designed to avoid deadly stampedes. (Mahmud Hams, AFP / Getty Images)



At least 14 people were killed as heavy overnight rains flooded parts of Turkey's biggest city Istanbul on Sept. 9, stranding motorists, flooding arterial roads and damaging homes. (Stringer, AFP / Getty Images)



People await rescue on the roof of a house in the flooded northern Philippines town of Pangasinan, Oct. 9. The death toll from two weeks of unprecedented storms across the northern Philippines soared past 540 after landslides consumed homes and neck-deep floods inundated towns. Meanwhile, the downstream farming plains of central Luzon were inundated with waters that reached the height of two storeys after dams in the mountains could not hold the phenomenal amount of water that has fallen on the region. (Philippine Coastguard, AFP / Getty Images)



A Filipino boy is brought to safety using an inflated tyre in flood-waters brought by Tropical Storm Ketsana in the Quezon City suburban of Manila on Sept. 26. At least nine people were reported dead or missing in massive floods in the Philippine capital as a tropical storm lashed the eastern side of the country, radio reports said. (Jay Directo, AFP / Getty Images)



Eduardo Meraz, 25, swims amidst crashing waves in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Sept. 1. The center of the hurricane, which weakened to a still threatening Category 3, was on course to pass west of Los Cabos, close enough to punish the beaches and fishing villages of the area. (Guillermo Arias, AP)



A boy cools himself in a fountain in Cordoba, southern Spain, Aug. 5. (Manu Fernandez, AP)