Texas seems to welcome wild weather, and that held true in 2012, even as it was stuck in miserable drought conditions. A freakish hailstorm created waist-deep mud drifts in the Texas Panhandle. Piles of hail came down and left people trapped in their cars, awaiting help from emergency crews; the storm closed down the southbound end of U.S. 287 for an entire night. The next day snowplows were needed to clear roads.
The presidential election was one of the biggest news stories of the year. More » Top news: Election 2012

Here are the top 10 obsessions that, as ranked by their search volume and percentage spike compared with 2011 on Yahoo!. More » The year's top obsessions

One daredevil captivated the globe. More » Space: A record jump

A purple-hued squirrel was found in a Pennsylvania backyard and folks were flummoxed as to how it got its unusual colori … More » Animals: Purple squirrel

Since 2001, Yahoo! has dipped into billions of searches to uncover our … More » Decade of top searches

Inspiring and astounding moments from around the world. More » Video: Astounding moments

Lindsay Lohan, Octomom, and Hulk Hogan are just a few of the celebs who stuffed us full of their nonsense this year. More » Celebrity turkeys of 2012

From Disneyland to Dollywood, Yahoo! searches for travel spots are all over the map. More » Travel: Top tourism
