Storm wallpapers

Storm pictures are about the moment before and during: a wall of cloud coming over open ground, lightning forking into a dark sea, a shaft of sun cutting through after the weather has passed. Few subjects have so much drama per pixel.

The pictures on this page keep it controlled. Skies are dark and heavy, but the lightning and the light breaks are the only bright areas, so they act as natural focal points. The rest of the frame, the clouds and the land below, is dark enough to take icons without distraction.

Wide frames place the storm over a flat horizon, a field, a lake or the sea, and are suited to a monitor. Tall frames show a single bolt or a column of cloud, which is a strong shape on a phone. Colour is a cool mix of slate, indigo and steel, with occasional purple and yellow-green.

Because they are dark, they use little power on OLED displays.

For more weather, try the rain page for a gentler mood, ocean for the sea itself, or the moon page for a clear-sky night. The dark topic collects the picture types that suit low light.

31 storm wallpapers (23 for desktop, 4 for phones, 4 square), all free to download in 4K as PNG or JPEG.

From the themes Storm atmosphere, Inverted storm terrarium, Nature landscapes, Sea eagle on the shore, Knitted wool mountains.