Earthquakes, bushfires, floods and, in Australia, previously little-known thunderstorm asthma were among the natural disasters that made headlines around the world in 2016.
It seemed like a year of earthquakes.
While there have been far deadlier years when it comes to the toll, earthquakes lingered in the headlines throughout the year.
In early February, earthquake-prone Taiwan was shaken by a 6.4-magnitude quake that killed 117 people and caused widespread damage across the country's south.
Almost all of those killed died when a 17-story residential building collapsed in Tainan.
Then, in August, almost 300 people died in central Italy in a 6.2-magnitude quake.
Among the survivors was a 65-year-old man named Giancarlo, from the town of Amatrice.
"I was in a house on top of the hill that collapsed," he said. "I survived, thank God, and I hope others are safe as well. I've been out here for two-and-a-half hours, wearing just my underwear.
"I don't know, we were waiting to see what will happen...we don't know anything, it's terrible. I'm 65-years-old and I have never experienced anything like this. Small tremors, yes, but nothing this big. It's a catastrophe."
Later, in October, historic buildings in central Italy were destroyed when another 6.6-magnitude quake struck, the most powerful to hit Italy since 1980.
The following month, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks killed two people in New Zealand and prompted a tsunami alert.
The quake, 90 kilometres north-east of Christchurch, forced residents to flee to higher ground as two-metre waves hit coastal areas.
One resident, a man named Michael Morgan, said he experienced about 45 seconds of utter terror.
"It was horrible. It started off just a little bit of a roll, and then it just... it must have lasted about 40, 45 seconds, and then there was a jolt. And I was trying to get up, but, because the ground was moving like that, you can't do anything. And I was trying to reach for the lamp to turn it on and couldn't even move," he said.
Later in November, a 6.9-magnitude quake off Japan's Honshu island triggered tsunami waves again.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK warned residents to be on alert: "At 6:49am, a 60-centimetre tsunami was observed in Onahama port in Iwaki city in Fukushima prefecture, and tsunami waves could have reached the shorelines."
Then it was back to another major earthquake that mirrored the deadly one that began the year. In the Indonesian province of Aceh, 103 people were killed in a December 7th earthquake that measured 6.5.
More than a thousand others were injured, triggering memories of the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the province on Boxing Day in 2004.
Away from the earthquakes of 2016, there was a single hurricane that proved far more deadly.
In late September, Hurricane Matthew brought winds of more than 250 kilometres an hour that battered Haiti, leaving more than 840 people dead.
It was the third strongest hurricane on record to hit the island nation.
Speaking from a town west of the capital Port Au Prince, one resident appealed to the international community for help.
"Oh, the situation is very bad," he said. "As you can see, everything gone, the town... all the town is destroyed. So we need the international support, because every family is very poor, they have no water, they have no food, they need medicine, they need good water."
There were some destructive fires during the year, too, most notably with Israel suffering through both urban fires and bushfires in November.
A woman stands in a field of destroyed trees after the passing of Hurricane Matthew, in Sous Roche in Les Cayes, in Southwest Haiti, on October 6, 2016. Source: Getty
In the city of Haifa, 75,000 people had to be evacuated from 11 neighbourhoods.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said arsonists were suspected of being responsible for some of the fires: "We strongly believe that the fires could have been started by individuals who fled the scene. There are a number of reports that we've received."
Also in November, in the United States, 14 people died in bushfires in the Smoky Mountains in the state of Tennessee.
More than 2,000 homes and businesses were destroyed, prompting local resident and country music legend Dolly Parton to set up a fund to help people who lost their homes.
Ms Parton staged a telethon from Nashville in December that she said had raised millions of dollars.
One of the worst floods of 2016 took place in August in the US state of Louisiana, where 40,000 homes were damaged.
Prolonged rainfall in southern parts of the state led to catastrophic flooding that submerged thousands of houses and businesses and killed 13 people.
Jo Lee Misner talked of how it hit her family: "I live at a higher elevation than they do. And, I mean, that's 36 members, but that's, you know, that's the entire family of 13 homes. We only have seven homes in the family that were not affected, but these family members are now staying with other members who didn't lose their homes.
"I mean, it's just unbelievable what they've been through. We just never imagined that this would happen in the first place. It's hard to know where to start."
In Australia, eight people died and more than 8,000 were hospitalised in Victoria after a thunderstorm-asthma event in November.
Thunderstorm asthma occurs when storms and rain cause pollen particles to burst, making them smaller and more easily inhaled.
Asthma and hayfever sufferers are particularly vulnerable to thunderstorm asthma, but people who do not normally suffer from asthma can also struggle to breathe.
The asthma storm overwhelmed Victoria's emergency services, with paramedics dealing with an unprecedented 1,900 emergency calls in just five hours.
In response, premier Daniel Andrews announced a $500 million upgrade for the state's ambulance services.
