Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

“Khotso, pula, nala”. These three words ( peace, rain, prosperity) greet people as they enter the kingdom of Lesotho, a tiny African country completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. The people are called Basotho ( one person is a Mosotho) and the language is sesotho.

Lesotho is a very mountainous country. Only 15% of the land is flat and fertile enough for farming. However, Lesotho is primarily an agricultural country. The country has often been called the “Switzerland of Africa”. It is the only country in the world with all its land rising more than one thousand metres ( 3.280 feet) above sea-level. Thabana Ntlenyana peak up to 3.482 metres ( 11.423 feet). Until recently, it was almost impossible to drive a vehicle through most of Lesotho. Travel accross the mountains was either on foot or on horseback.

Lesotho’s high elevation accounts for its dry climate. The country is…

January 23, 2013 – CLIMATE – An unusual event playing out high in the atmosphere above the Arctic Circle is setting the stage for what could be weeks upon weeks of frigid cold across wide swaths of the U.S., having already helped to bring cold and snowy weather to parts of Europe. Forecast high temperatures on Monday, Jan. 21, from the GFS computer model. This phenomenon, known as a “sudden stratospheric warming event,” started on Jan. 6, but is something that is just beginning to have an effect on weather patterns across North America and Europe. While the physics behind sudden stratospheric warming events are complicated, their implications are not: such events are often harbingers of colder weather in North America and Eurasia. The ongoing event favors colder and possibly stormier weather for as long as four to eight weeks after the event, meaning that after a…