Another wet day for some...

Hi All;

A round of thunderstorms developed Tuesday afternoon and evening, but the significant rain was restricted to areas northeast of La Crosse up into Jackson County and then int0 Central Wisconsin. Even then amounts were not a problem, though we received at least one report of pea-sized hail in Clark County. The front then moved through and that will set the stage for sunnier skies on Wednesday. Temperatures will continue to average below normal for the better part of the next 5 to 7 days.

On a completely different topic; I was reading about the earthquake in China's  Sichuan Province. The magnitude of it was 7.8 on the Richter scale and at least 10,000 are presumed dead. This is a devastating natural phenomena, but not the strongest.

On May 22, 1960, an earthquake  that struck Valdivia, Chile had a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale. This is the strongest earthquake ever recorded by instruments in the world.

Remember that each 1.o increase on the Richter scale means a tenfold increase in strength. Still, the Sichuan earthquake was strong enough to destroy 80 percent of the buildings Sichuan province's Beichuan county.

The earthquake happened in southwest China, not all that far from Myanmar, which was devastated by a tropical cyclone only a week or so before.

Dan Breeden
News 19 Chief Meteorologist