Could the growth of our cities in recent years influence temperature readings and explain at least some of what is associated with global warming? Well, perhaps so, as two recent studies examined how temperatures around the Chinese cities of Beijing and Wuhan have experienced just such a rise as a result of rapid urbanization over the past several decades.  These rising city temperatures were not experienced in more rural northern China, which lead the researchers to believe that as much as 40 to 60 percent of the warming that occurred in the Land of the Dragon might simply be explained by what is now termed the Urban Heat Island effect.  This no doubt puts a new spin on having hot times in the big city!