2008 Pictures of the Year: Weather

• Young Cubans are hit by a big wave at the Malecon waterfront as high wind and rain swept across Cuba as Hurricane Ike passed through on September 10. Almost 2.6 million Cuban people sought refuge from Hurricane Ike, which killed four as it swept across the length of the country.
  
  
  

  Sven Creutzmann, Mambo Photo / Getty Images

• A huge tornado funnel cloud touches down in Orchard, Iowa, on June 10 at 9:04 p.m. The Globe Gazette and Mitchell County Press News reported that Lori Mehmen of Orchard, took the photo from outside her front door. Mehmen said the funnel cloud came near the ground and then went back up into the clouds. Besides tree and crop damage, no human injuries were reported.
  
  
  

  Lori Mehmen, HO / AP

• An aerial view shows damage caused by tornadoes in Suffolk, Va., April 29. Three tornadoes smashed houses, tossed cars and injured than 200 residents.
  
  
  

  Steve Helber, AP

• Waves crash over the harbor wall on the seafront at Porthcawl on March 12 in Wales, United Kingdom. The British Isles are being battered by severe gales and heavy rain and forecasters have reported gusts of up to 80mph hitting Northern Ireland as the Atlantic weather front moved eastward.
  
  
  

  Matt Cardy, Getty Images

• Scattered clouds over Bass Strait take on a surreal appearance when viewed from a tinted aircraft window through a circular polarizer, January 11. The light cloud cover, soaring summer temperatures and prolonged drought led to fears of a bush fire threat across southern Australia.
  
  
  

  Torsten Blackwood, AFP / Getty Images

• A former farm is graded and put up for sale for commercial development May 8 near Bakersfield, Calif. Urgent calls for California residents to conserve water have grown in the wake of the final Sierra Nevada Mountains snow survey of the season indicating a snow depth and water content at only 67 percent of normal levels. The Sierra snow pack is vital to California water supplies and officials prepared plans for mandatory water conservation. In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District, cut deliveries to farmers by nearly a third and growers in Fresno and Kings counties have not planted about 200,000 acres of crops, a third of the land irrigated by Westlands Water District. Many farmers are now selling their government-subsidized water for profit instead of using it to plant crops. Much of the California water supply comes from the Colorado River where a continuing eight-year drought has lowered water storage to roughly half of capacity. Dry conditions across the West have already doubled the wildfires this year causing fire officials to brace for a possible repeat of the devastating 2007 southern California wildfire season.
  
  
  

  David McNew, Getty Images

• Lightning flashes in the night sky over south London Aug. 7. The storm brought a temporary end to the hot and humid weather with light rain and a cool breeze.
  
  
  

  Dan Kitwood, Getty Images

• Steve Owen, right, and his son Austin Owen, 13, are swamped by a wave from Hurricane Ike while standing on the sea wall in Galveston, Texas, Sept. 12.
  
  
  

  LM Otero, AP

• With the Gulf of Mexico seen at right, a beach front home stands among the debris in Gilchrist, Texas, Sept. 14 after Hurricane Ike hit the area. Ike was the first major storm to directly hit a major U.S. metro area since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.
  
  
  

  David J. Phillip, Pool / AP

• Fish remain stuck in a fence as flood waters caused by Hurricane Ike recede, in West Orange, Texas, Sept. 15.
  
  
  

  Eric Gay, AP