>> i'd rather wear it because i don't want to get covid. >> reporter: and our vocabularies expanded to include new terms, breakthrough cases, boosters, and by year's end, omicron. as the pandemic raged, so did nature's fury. >> we're huddled under the blankets we had. >> reporter: in february a deadly ice storm paralyzed texas, leaving millions without power. wildfires continued to ravage the west while hurricane ida carved a path of destruction that stretched from louisiana to new york. and this month, more than 100 were killed by a series of rare december tornadoes in kentucky and surrounding states. one twister cutting a path more than 200 miles long. it was a year of fatal