Rare snowfall in the African country of Lesotho

Rare snowfall in the African country of Lesotho. Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory shows snow covering most of the South African country of Lesotho.

A winter weather front produced between 2 and 12 inches of snow, with the largest amount of precipitation falling in the Maluti Mountains.

Heavy snowfall has become a rare event in the region, but light dustings are still relatively common. There is one ski resort in Lesotho, where artificial snow is made during most of the short winter season.

This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on August 11, 2018.Rare snowfall in the African country of Lesotho

Lesotho (/ləˈsuːtuː/ (listen), Sotho pronunciation: , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: ‘Muso oa Lesotho), is an enclaved country within the border of South Africa. Along with the Vatican City and San Marino, it is one of only three independent states completely surrounded by the territory of another country, and the only one outside the Italian peninsula or that is not a microstate. Lesotho is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) and has a population of around 2 million. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. The official language is Sesotho.
Lesotho was previously the British Crown Colony of Basutoland, but it declared independence from the United Kingdom on 4 October 1966. It is now a fully sovereign state and is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The name Lesotho roughly translates to “the land of the people who speak Sesotho”

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory