The return of some sort of precipitation to the forecast after a nearly two-month absence, offering respite from fires that continue to burn local forests and cloud skies with smoke

A definitive and happily uneventful end to the 2012 presidential election, with no drawn-out legal battles, recount drama or hanging chad nightmares

Women continuing to break through the political glass ceiling, with 19 female senators in the 113th congress, the most in U.S. history
 

Humans being singled out as the cause of two large Colorado wildfires, including this summer’s devastating Weber fire, near Colorado Springs, and 2011’s Ruby Canyon Fire, near Loma


 
 

Another Noreaster setting its sights on the already ravaged East Coast

 
The nearly $6 billion estimated to have been spent nationally on political advertising trying to sway voters in a race that basically boiled down to 50-50