Many modern theories predict this behavior, most celebrated and documented being the infamous "Bendy Light".
As we saw during earlier flat earth experiments and those for hollow earth, measuring this over water is a fools errand and you are quite likely to see more or less of the city than one should given the model at hand. While one could build a model around this data and then tie to it an explanation layer that suited the modelat hand, one could just easily construct said model for the opposing view.
The best we can hope for is a model that suitably fits prediction of these. One easily testable theory comes from the more Rowbothamic of our members, and holds that telescopes can reveal lost vision due to the law of perspective. Bendy light would be false if this is indeed, thus making it another falsifiable candidate in opposition to Rowbothamic models and a suitable temporary model to explain a wide variety of phenomenae.
Aetheric models, which are mostly my work and little spoke of, hold this is a consequence of the shape of the higher three spacial dimensions and magnitudes. While the details of this are obscured, one can easily imagine several scenarios where this would be the case.
As always, as a zetetic one should test it themselves and make their own determination. Empiricism grew from a need to move away from priestcraft, and its about time we did.