December 20, 2020 – The 13 winners of the incredibly popular World Meteorological Organization annual competition have just been announced, and two fine pieces of Croatia weather photography are among them. These spectacular images of Croatia weather photography show all 9 Croatian photographs which reached the final in 2020 and all 10 Croatian finalists who similarly stunned the global audience in 2019

Croatia weather photography: the two newly announced winners from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Sandro Puncet Photo taken: Losinj island

Photographer: Zrinka Balabanic Photo taken: Pag island

Thanks to its popularity as a tourist destination, lots of people are now used to seeing beautiful photos of Croatia. Although, the images they usually see are of idyllic beaches, cloudless skies, stunning nature and turquoise blue seas. But, as anyone who knows the country will tell you - and as these photos show - Croatia isn't always like that.

Croatia weather photography: the two newly announced runners-up from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Šime Barešić Photo taken: Drage, Pakostane

Photographer: Mislav Bilic Photo taken: Lapad Peninsula, Dubrovnik

Out of season, Croatia can experience vastly different weather conditions to those advertised in travel brochures and blogs. And, whenever there's a spectacular weather occurrence, usually there's a photographer out there, braving the elements, trying to capture it.

Over recent years, some of the best Croatia weather photography has featured in the annual competition organised by the World Meteorological Organization. 2020 has been no different.

The other five Croatian finalists from the 2020 competition
Photographer: Šime Barešić Photo taken: Drage, Pakostane

Photographer: Sandro Puncet Photo taken: Losinj island

Photographer: Zoran Stanko Photo taken: Geisler Alm, Dolomites, Italy

Photographer: Maja Kraljik Photo taken: Umag, Istria

Photographer: Igor Popovic Photo taken: Rijeka

The winners of this year's competition have just been announced and the two fantastic examples of Croatia weather photography within the top 13 will take their place in the 2021 World Meteorological Organization calendar.

The 10 Croatian finalists from the 2019 competition
Photographer: Danica Sičič Photo taken: Srobreč, Dalmatia

Photographer: Romeo Ibrišević Photo taken: Plitvice Lakes National Park

Photographer: Božan Štambuk Photo taken: Bundek park, Zagreb

Photographer: Miroslava Novak Photo taken: Pribislavec, Međimurje

As well as the two winners, two further examples of Croatia weather photography came in the runner-up category, of which there were 12 in total.

Photographer: Francesca Delbianco Photo taken: Zagreb

Photographer: Ivica Brlić Photo taken: Sava river, Davor, near Slavonski Brod

Photographer: Nataša Šafar Photo taken: Rečica, near Karlovac

Photographer: Romeo Ibrišević Photo taken: Plitvice Lakes National Park

Over 1000 photographs from all over the world were entered in the 2020 competition. The submissions were narrowed down to a final selection of 70 contenders. As TCN reported back at the start of October, no less than 9 examples of Croatia weather photography made it into the final 70, taken by 7 Croatian photographers.

Photographer: Danijel Palčić Photo taken: Pag island

Photographer: Aleksandar Gospic Photo taken: Ražanac

Croatia regularly punches well above its weight in the annual competition, as we can see from these 10 examples of incredible Croatia weather photography that were among the finalists in 2019.

All images courtesy World Meteorological Organisation

One of the key problems of being a small and very tourist-oriented country is that at times, in certain places, there are just too many tourists. It's a problem that Dubrovnik has struggled with for ages and one that's been causing problems at other sites in Croatia as well, including the national parks which are supposed to protect the natural beauties of Croatia. And probably the place where the struggle between too many people wanting to visit and the conservation efforts is the most visible is the Plitvice Lakes National Park.

So, in order to manage the number of people visiting the park each day, a new pilot-project was recently started. In order to get your tickets for Plitvice these days, you need to follow several steps: First of all, you need to make an online reservation at least two days before your arrival. While making the online reservation, you need to pick the exact date, time and place of entry into the National park. After that is done, you will be given a voucher which will allow you to purchase your ticket at the entrance you chose, in the hour you chose for your entry into the park. If you're late, you won't be allowed in the later time slot. The number of visitors has been limited to 10000 daily. If some of the tickets are not sold (which can be expected to happen in the pre-season, but really isn't something that's going to happen during the high-season days), you might be able to buy them without the voucher, but as we said, you shouldn't count on that.

The pilot project has left some people disappointed, as they didn't know about it and were not able to get into Plitvice, Andrea Thomas and Emirat Asipi write for 24sata.hr. An eight-membered Hungarian family made a trip to Plitvice last Saturday, spent the night there and then were not able to purchase the tickets and see the most famous waterfalls in Croatia. A Japanese couple got lucky, they were at the entrance at 8 am and were lucky enough to get the tickets for the 1 pm slot, which left them with quite a lot of time to fill before they were allowed into the park. A Croatian family, however, was very pleased with the new system: they knew about it, planned well in advance, bought their vouchers three weeks before their trip and enjoyed the efficiency of the new entry method.

Although the idea is to reduce the crowds at the park, currently it seems that the new system has caused some crowding at the entrance. If you want to visit Plitvice, until the end of May the price of the ticket is 100 kuna. After June 1st, the price for entrance before 4 pm goes up to 250 kunas per person, and after 4 pm it will be 150 kunas. The high-season prices are valid until the end of September (the daily cut-off for the reduced prices is at 3 pm in September, not 4 pm). 

December 4, 2018 - Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979, the Plitvice Lakes are Croatia's biggest, oldest and most visited national park.

Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Plitvice Lakes each year, and the vast majority flocks to the park during summer. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that – au contraire! – it is an amazing place to visit during all four seasons. However, if you happen to be nearby sometime between January and March, you definitely don't want to miss out on winter wonderland at Plitvice.

The best part of visiting Croatia's most frequented national park during wintertime is, obviously, very few visitors and no crowds. No waiting in lines at the ticket counter. No slow-walkers ahead of you, and no one breathing down your neck. And just imagine having the park nearly all to yourself? Such bliss!

Then there's the magnificent winter scenery: landscapes blanketed by freshly fallen snow, flaunting the frigid beauty of winter. Because spring, summer, and fall are beautiful and all... but Plitvice under the snow? So silent and serene – truly a sight to behold.

And let's not forget the diverse wildlife, as the Plitvice lakes are home to bears, wolves, lynxes, otters and other lake dwelling creatures, numerous rare bird species, etc. Okay, to be honest, I didn't really see that much of Plitvice's feathered and furry residents, but I saw some ducks, and they were pretty (and) wild.

If you're still not quite convinced, please enjoy the Outdoors Croatia video below, and for more related content, make sure you follow our dedicated travel page.

Plitvice National Park is a sight to behold, but if the entrance fees keep increasing, there won't be that many willing to behold it, especially when it comes to people from Croatia.

Need a lift to Plitvice or Krka this summer?