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.