Rock out

So this story is finally going to be one that does not involve my girlfriend.

I've never been a big fan of rocks, they seem boring and dull, but after class on Monday I was reminded of a time in my childhood (No I didn't throw a rock at someones head).

Years ago, my sister had collected a lot of rocks for a while because she thought it was fun. She didn't know what the classifications were but she just did. I was in a geography class and we were going over rocks at the time..

I had noticed that she had a rock with a bunch of stripes on it and the rock was a darker color. I remember I told her it it was foliated and she acted as if she knew what it meant and told me it definitely was not.

I argued with her for about 5 minutes until my mom came in and told us to be quiet. She bet me $100 (which she didn't have) that it wasn't and I went and got my book to show her that foliated meant that the heat was so hot that it had layered itself and had the appearance of stripes.

She threw the book down and called me a liar and I never saw the $100.

My drive to Lake Tahoe

Well I actually had a free weekend and this was a blessing for me and my 21 units.

My gf had planned a trip to Lake Tahoe for Halloween and I had only been once in my life (I always get that look of OMFG ARE YOU SERIOUS???)

Yes, I am.

Well, as we get about 30 miles out of Sacramento I notice the trees start to look different. Many become mixed with needleleaf and pine trees, much different than what we see in Sacramento.

I am always in desperate need to impress my girlfriend, so after remembering what I had learned in class I explained to her that these trees are changing because of our elevation. As we get higher (5-6000 feet) the area gets much colder and these trees have adapted to the climate.

These are the types of trees that can withstand cold storms and snow, and thus is why they are everywhere. I told her that we are a Mediterranean shrubland in the area, but just outside we have a mixed forest and then once we are in Tahoe the trees are completely different.

She looked at me and told me to just focus on driving, but I still sounded like a smart, smart man.

Tropical craziness

Well, I was very excited to find out me and my girlfriend would be going to Puerto Vallarta Mexico.

It was somewhere I had never been and I hear it is amazing. We had a beachside all-inclusive hotel and a ziplining trip planned from the weekend.

Well, I had noticed that every single night we stayed there, it would storm like crazy over the ocean and usually become cloudy and rainy at 4 p.m. Even though it was sunny and hot and looked beautiful throughout the entire morning and afternoon.

During our ziplining excursion the weather couldn't be better. But about halfway through, I noticed huge dark rain clouds creeping in. We were in the canopy and could only see the sky when we were near the river, on our last zipline all of a sudden it began pouring.

I mean gigantic rain drops and rain I had never seen before. Hardcore rain for about an hour or two straight. I wondered why it was like this every single day. I found out it's because I was in the tropical rainforest.

This means there are usually late-day thunderstorms in areas that have canopy like vegetation. The trees were multistoried and you couldn't really see any sunlight. It's pretty cool to find out more geography about the places I go.

I went on a climb

So it has been awhile, but I climbed a mountain once.

I was with a friend and we were bored one summer so we thought it would be a good idea. As we were climbing, I noticed the weather became more and more chili, now I know this is due to the lapse rate which I wish I knew at the time.

And by climbing, I mean we walked up paths.. It wasn't that extreme.. really.

Anyway as we get to the top I notice a lot more breeze than when I was on the ground and this confused me. Did the wind just decide to act up all of a sudden?

I didn't think anything of it as we continued to walk around the top of the mountain. My buddy tells me it's too cold and he wants to go down. I call him a wuss and tell him to man up.

I then began to get cold. It sucks we didn't properly prepare for this trip as we could have had a great experience at the top.

The reason the winds were around was because of orographic lifting. This happens when air rises upslope as it pushes against a mountain. It cools adiabatically and stable air is forced upward.

Well, now I know to bring a jacket next time, thanks orographic lifting for ruining my climb.

I live downtown and go to my grandpas farm often.

It's about the same elevation, but about 30 miles out of the city. I had always brought a jacket there and long pants even sometimes late in the summer. He lives near the river, so I just assumed it was caused from the evaporation and moisture in the air.

Sure enough, my failed theory was proven wrong again, kind of. That may be a reason as to why his farm is cooler than outside my apartment on H street, but it's not the only reason. I learned that the urban heat island is a factor in the cooling.

The urban heat island means that urban areas on average have higher maximum and minimum temperatures that rural areas do.

One of the factors of this UHI is a dust dome. This is an airporne pollution, which affects urban energy budgets and heat up the city more. I always knew there was some sort of reason like this but now my theory finally rings true.

Another myth busted thanks to the assistance of geography.

So I enjoy spending some of my free time outside where I can breathe the fresh pollution of the city, however, at other times I like going out of the city and near rivers and lakes. So on Labor Day weekend I figured I should work on my pasty complexion and go to the river!

I saw it was going to be 90 degrees out so based on this I wore as little as possible (much to the liking of the ladies). I showed up with my beach towel and sunscreen but was taken aback when I laid down to notice it was much cooler than what the weather report indicated.

I took this as a simple misunderstanding between the weather girl and her report she reads from and didn't think a lot of it until yesterday in class. I found out that due to land-water heating differences the energy from the water becomes water vapor and cools the area around it which is why it felt cooler by the river.

Evaporation is the key to the heating differences as well as since water is fluid and capable of movement the mixing spreads the available heat over an even greater volume.

So I went to Mexico about two weeks ago and I had a great time. As I was laying on the beach with my girlfriend we looked out into the ocean and saw the sun setting. It looked very hazy and mismatched and she actually turned and said to me: "Why does the sun look like that?"

I turned to panic mode and told her "the reason it looks distorted is because the sun is extremely hot, just like our love. She snuggled up closer and proceeded to tell me how smart I was. Well, obviously things went amiss when I stepped into Geography class. I now know that the sun's distortion is produced by refraction of the sun's image in the atmosphere. Well, this new knowledge didn't sit well with me as I then felt the need to let my girlfriend know the truth.

When I told her we needed to talk, she asked if everything was OK. I told her no, nothing is ok. As I was about to tell her about refraction I panicked and broke up with her instead.

But at least I know for future reference that refraction is the key to success.