This image is in the public domain because it was stored on the web servers of the U.S. National Weather Service. NWS-created images are automatically public domain in the U.S. since the NWS is a part of the U.S. government. However, the NWS sites also host non-NWS images which have been submitted by individuals: these are generally shown as "Courtesy of ...". Such images have explicitly been released to the public domain by the copyright owner as part of the upload process.
Thus, all* images on NWS servers are public domain (including "Courtesy of ..." and “Photo by ...” images) unless specifically stated otherwise through a copyright (©) watermark.
*A deletion discussion in November 2023 ruled that Getty Images on the web servers of NWS, are to be considered copyrighted, even without a copyright (©) watermark and are the sole exception to this rule. |