The highs and lows, the news makers and the earth shakers. A lot of stories will be associated with 2012 here in Moose Jaw and today we're counting down the Top 5.

High winds, a bit of hail, a lot of rain and at least one confirmed tornado.  It was a wild night in southern Saskatchewan last June as a massive storm system rolled across the bottom part of the province. Even Environment Canada was surprised by just how big the system was and how many areas were hit. Another summer of Saskatchewan storms is in at #4 on our list of top stories from 2012

The day started out with sunny skies but as the afternoon drew near, Environment Canada started to send out warnings and watches. The skies turned dark and thousands of residents started to prepare for the worst.

Around supper time, dark clouds could be seen to the west and they were heading our way. Then the phones started ringing as residents around Caron began reporting high winds and a suspected tornado. In Moose Jaw, residents sought shelter as the rain pounded local homes and the hail bounced off the asphalt. Wind gusts were recorded at over 100km per hour but there was minimal damage. 15-20 minutes after it started, the storm was gone.

Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Jon Paul Cragg says the brief touchdown was near Caron and no damage was reported, but we learned soon after there could have been more than one tornado.  "We have another report in Hodgeville," said Cragg.  "There was other reports of funnel clouds, but it's going to take us sometime to go through the reports and pick out things to investigate.  We have 500 reports from over the last 36 hours.

Cragg said Environment Canada would spend several weeks studying video, pouring through photos and interviewing witnesses to find out exactly what happened, "We get reports from storm spotters and if we have a report about a tornado touchdown, we give the person that reported the tornado a call and then we can talk to them about the type of damage, what happened, what they saw and things like that in order to compile an accurate report of the tornadoes."

By the end of the summer, Saskatchewan had 33 confirmed touchdowns when we would normal only get about 13 tornadoes in a whole year. The intense weather even made Environment Canada's top stories list.

Take a look at some of the photos captured June 26th from around Moose Jaw by clicking here.