Sea breeze

Article By:

Lyons, Walter A. Forensic Meteorology Associates, Fort Collins, Colorado.

Last reviewed:December 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757369

A diurnal, thermally driven circulation in which a surface convergence zone often exists between airstreams having over-water versus over-land histories. The sea breeze is one of the most frequently occurring small-scale (mesoscale) weather systems. It results from the unequal sensible heat flux of the lower atmosphere over adjacent solar-heated land and water masses. Owing to the large thermal inertia of a water body, during daytime the air temperature changes little over the water while over land the air mass warms. Occurring during periods of fair skies and generally weak large-scale winds, the sea breeze is recognizable by a wind shift to onshore, generally several hours after sunrise. On many tropical coastlines the sea breeze is an almost daily occurrence. It also occurs with regularity during the warm season along midlatitude coastlines and even occasionally on Arctic shores. Especially during periods of very light winds, similar though sometimes weaker wind systems occur over the shores of larger lakes and even wide rivers and estuaries (lake breezes, river breezes). At night, colder air from the land often will move offshore as a land breeze. Typically the land breeze circulation is much weaker and shallower than its daytime counterpart.

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