Kay’s face lit up when she realized that urban heat islands (UHI) were not actual bodies of land surrounded by water somewhere in the middle of a city. When she grasped the notion of “island” as a metaphor, she understood why she had never actually “seen” one, despite having lived all her life and having received all her schooling in urban settings. As she later explained, “An urban island is an island, well not really an island, but it’s a place where there is a lot of people so it makes it really hot.”