30 of the best environmental photos of 2019 reveal the wonder and anguish of our planet

Some of these photos showcase familiar natural phenomena like falling snow.

Hoarfrost, shown here, occurs when cold air is extra moist and foggy. That leads frost patterns to become larger and more intricate. The Weather Channel calls it "frost on steroids."

Sources: The Weather Channel, Reuters

This year, the "Dubak" challenge, which involves tossing boiling water into the air and watching it freeze, went viral in Russia. The trick caught on as temperatures in parts of eastern Russia dropped lower than normal in February, reaching negative 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

Source: Reuters

This year, research on superbolts showed the bolts can be 1,000 times more energetic than regular lightning (shown below). Superbolts usually occur in the northern hemisphere over water, but scientists aren't sure what causes them.

Source: Business Insider

People in some parts of the world saw a lunar eclipse in January. It was referred to as a "super blood wolf moon" because the full moon fell in the month of January and the moon was particularly close in its orbit around Earth.

Source: Business Insider

The Northern Lights are magical. They appear at high altitudes when charged solar wind particles hit the earth's atmosphere.

Source: Reuters

Rain in southern California last winter created the perfect conditions for "super blooms," which were so bold they could be seen from space.

Sources: Business Insider

Some of the best environmental photos show what it's like to deal with the effects of climate change. July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth.

Source: Associated Press

According to an analysis by scientists with the group World Weather Attribution, climate change made the summer heatwave at least five times more likely.

Source: Business Insider, World Weather Attribution

Greece's "gulf of plastic corals" was another reminder of the damaging effects of human activity. Divers coined the term for the area near Andros island after they pulled thousands of plastic bags from the sea there.

Source: Business Insider, Reuters

A crab fisherman in Brazil told Reuters that his daily catch is half of what it was 10 years ago because the waterline is about 10 feet further inland due to melting in the Arctic.

Source: Reuters

In February, the UK saw its warmest winter day on record. This fire started in West Yorkshire the following day and spread rapidly because of the warm, dry conditions. Witnesses described the scene as "apocalyptic," according to the Guardian.

Source: The Guardian, Reuters

This year, researchers recorded more than 195,000 fires in Brazil.

Source: Business Insider

Many of the fires in the Brazilian Amazon were started by farmers and loggers seeking to use the land for industrial or agricultural purposes.

Source: Business Insider

Land-clearing fires are set each year in the Brazilian Amazon, but warmer temperatures and drier conditions linked to climate change make it easier for blazes to get out of control.

Source: Business Insider

In July, the Amazon shrunk by 519 square miles — a new monthly record for deforestation there.

Source: Business Insider

Recently, prominent scientists warned that because of deforestation, the Amazon is "teetering on the edge" of an irreversible threshold that could turn it into a savanna.

Source: Business Insider

Fires also ravaged an ecological conservation area in Bolivia over the summer. This armadillo was blinded by the heat from a wildfire, veterinarian Jerjes Suarez told Reuters.

Source: Reuters

In Greenland, meanwhile, melting ice makes hunting sea animals more challenging.

Source: Insider

In Switzerland, melting glaciers are leading the land around ski resorts to become unstable and prone to avalanches.

Sources: Reuters, Business Insider

To reduce melting, this Swiss glacier was covered with a tarp to insulate the ice and reflects back sunlight. Glaciologist David Volken told Metro UK that using this covering slows down summer melting by 50% to 70%.

Source: Metro UK

South Korea's air quality is the worst of any country in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The issue was designated a disaster this year, enabling the government to use emergency funds.

Source: Reuters

After a years-long drought, Chennai — the sixth-largest city in India — all but ran out of water in 2019. More than 6 million people live in the area, and Chennai's water authority cut the entire city's piped water supply by 40% from June to November.

Sources: Business Insider, The Hindu

The city's water shortage is officially over, but the Hindu reported in November that 3,100 streets in Chennai still didn't have water.

Source: The Hindu

India's sacred Yamuna river, meanwhile, is so polluted that it's been deemed "dead." That's not snow in this photo — it's toxic foam. The river is the main source of water for 19 million people in New Delhi.

Source: CBS News

Other parts of the world are getting too much water. Record-breaking rain hit areas of Spain in July, and the resulting flooding killed at least six people.

Sources: Reuters, The Guardian

Record-breaking high tides flooded Venice three times in one week in November. Sea levels around the city are rising because of climate change.

Sources: Washington Post, Reuters

Elsewhere in Italy, the Stromboli volcano erupted twice in two months.

Source: Yahoo News

After residents of Kapoho, Hawaii, fled their homes due to the Kilauea volcano eruption in 2018, many returned this year to the sites where their houses stood.

Source: Reuters

The 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine reentered the spotlight this year following the release of HBO's "Chernobyl" miniseries. Some travel companies saw a 40% increase in Chernobyl tourism over the summer, according to Reuters.

Sources: Reuters