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The woman capturing the beauty of the skies on camera

Barra BestBBC News NI weather presenter
Rachel Cassidy An unusual cloud arrangement at night. The sky is blue and orange and the clouds look like layers of rock. There is a hill on the right and some streetlights to the left.Rachel Cassidy
The shortlisted image is called - A Midsummer's Night Dream

A BBC Weather Watcher who regularly shares her photographs with the organisation has been shortlisted for a prestigious international photography award.

Rachel Cassidy is the only photographer from Northern Ireland to reach the final shortlist of the Royal Meteorological Society's Weather (RMetS) Photographer of the Year 2026 competition.

Her photograph, A Midsummer Night's Dream, captures a display of noctilucent clouds above Binevenagh and Lough Foyle on the north coast.

The image was selected from more than 5,500 entries submitted by photographers around the world.

Rachel Cassidy A town silhouetted against an orange and blue mostly cloudless sky. There is a tree in the foreground to the right.Rachel Cassidy
Rachel often captures the sky around Limavady and the Sperrin Mountains

Rachel, from Limavady, is a familiar contributor to BBC weather output, often sharing images of changing skies and landscapes through BBC Weather Watchers.

Rachel Cassidy The night sky lit up in shades of purple and pink with three trees below. Rachel Cassidy
Starry, starry night - another of Rachel's pictures

What are noctilucent clouds?

Rachel's shortlisted image captures one of the more unusual sights in the summer night sky.

Noctilucent clouds - sometimes known as night-shining clouds – form around 80km (50 miles) above Earth's surface, much higher than ordinary weather clouds.

They are made up of tiny ice crystals and can be seen glowing against the dark sky when they are illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon.

They are most commonly spotted during the summer months at higher latitudes, particularly around twilight.

'Pinch-me moment'

Rachel Cassidy has long curly dark hair and is wearing a multi-coloured zip top with a red polo neck underneath. She is holding up a picture of her shortlisted photograph. She is standing in a garden with a hydrangea bush to the right and a leaf-less bush to the left. The backdrop is green fields with hills in beyond that.
Rachel, pictured in her garden which has a pretty spectacular backdrop

Rachel said reaching the final shortlist was particularly special because of her love of the weather and the area she calls home.

"It feels like a pinch-me moment, it was really quite surreal when I found out I had been shortlisted," Rachel told BBC News NI.

"Being able to capture something so spectacular from my own garden, in our part of the world we call home, was just great."

However, photographing the spectacle was not as easy as you might think.

"It was tricky to capture because noctilucent clouds are quite unpredictable, you often have to be in the right place at the right time," she said.

"I remember being in the garden and seeing it happen. I just grabbed my phone as the colours got more vivid and bright - it was like an ocean moving in the sky."

Rachel Cassidy A country road with fields on either side. There is a large tree in the right-hand field. The ground is covered in snow. Rachel Cassidy
Rachel is all-weather photographer

Rachel said it would be amazing to showcase Northern Ireland if she won the competition.

"I'm a big fan of the weather, and to win against so many fantastic photographers will be another pinch me moment," she said.

Now in its 11th year, the RMetS competition celebrates photographs that capture the beauty, power and impact of weather and climate around the world.

This year's 30 shortlisted photographs feature scenes from 13 countries, ranging from dramatic lightning strikes and spectacular cloud formations to wildfires and flooding.

Prizes range from £1,500 to £50 and the winners will be announced on 17 November.

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