Sea Breeze and Land Breezes

A sea breeze describes a wind that blows from the ocean inland towards land. This breeze occurs most often in the
spring and summer months because of the greater temperature differences between the ocean and nearby land,
particularly in the afternoon when the land is at maximum heating from the sun. A sea breeze or onshore breeze is a
gentle wind blowing from sea toward land, that develops over bodies of water near land due to differences in air
pressure created by their different heat capacity. It is a common occurrence along coasts during the morning as solar
radiation heats the land more quickly than the water. A land breeze or offshore breeze, blowing from land to sea, is the
reverse effect, caused by land cooling more quickly than water in the evening. The sea breeze dissipates and the wind
flows from the land towards the sea. Both are important factors in coastal regions' prevailing winds.

During the day, the sun heats up both the ocean surface and the land. Water is a good absorber of the energy from the
sun. The land absorbs much of the sun’s energy as well. However, water heats up much more slowly than land and so
the air above the land will be warmer compared to the air over the ocean. The warm air over the land will rise
throughout the day, causing low pressure at the surface. Over the water, high surface pressure will form because of the
colder air. To compensate, the air will sink over the ocean. The wind will blow from the higher pressure over the water
to lower pressure over the land causing the sea breeze. The sea breeze strength will vary depending on the temperature
difference between the land and the ocean.

At night, the roles reverse. The air over the ocean is now warmer than the air over the land. The land loses heat quickly
after the sun goes down and the air above it cools too. This can be compared to a blacktop road. During the day, the
blacktop road heats up and becomes very hot to walk on. At night, however, the blacktop has given up the added heat
and is cool to the touch. The ocean, however, is able to hold onto this heat after the sun sets and not lose it as easily.
This causes the low surface pressure to shift to over the ocean during the night and the high surface pressure to move
over the land. This causes a small temperature gradient between the ocean surface and the nearby land at night and the
wind will blow from the land to the ocean creating the land breeze.

Sea Breeze Land Breeze

Cause

The sea has a greater heat capacity than land, so the surface of the sea warms up more slowly than the land's surface. As
the temperature of the surface of the land rises, the land heats the air above it by conduction. The warm air is less dense
and so it expands, decreasing the pressure over the land near the coast. The air above the sea has a relatively higher
pressure, causing air near the coast to flow towards the lower pressure over land. The strength of the sea breeze is
directly proportional to the temperature difference between the land and the sea. If a strong offshore wind is present,
that is, a wind greater than 8 knots (15 km/h) and opposing the direction of a possible sea breeze, the sea breeze is not
likely to develop.

Effects
A sea-breeze front is a weather front created by a sea breeze, also known as a convergence zone. The cold air from the
sea meets the warmer air from the land and creates a boundary like a shallow cold front. When powerful this front
creates cumulus clouds, and if the air is humid and unstable, the front can sometimes trigger thunderstorms. If the flow
aloft is aligned with the direction of the sea breeze, places experiencing the sea breeze frontal passage will have benign,
or fair, weather for the remainder of the day. At the front warm air continues to flow upward and cold air continually
moves in to replace it and so the front moves progressively inland. Its speed depends on whether it is assisted or
hampered by the prevailing wind, and the strength of the thermal contrast between land and sea. At night, the sea
breeze usually changes to a land breeze, due to a reversal of the same mechanisms.

Land breeze

At night, the land cools off faster than the ocean due to differences in their heat capacity, which forces the dying of the
daytime sea breeze as the temperature of the land approaches that of the ocean. If the land becomes cooler than the
adjacent sea surface temperature, the air pressure over the water will be lower than that of the land, setting up a land
breeze blowing from the land to the sea, as long as the environmental surface wind pattern is not strong enough to
oppose it. If there is sufficient moisture and instability available, the land breeze can cause showers, or even
thunderstorms, over the water. Overnight thunderstorm development offshore due to the land breeze can be a good
predictor for the activity on land the following day, as long as there are no expected changes to the weather pattern
over the following 12–24 hours. This is mainly because the strength of the land breeze is weaker than the sea breeze.[3]
The land breeze will die once the land warms up again the next morning.

Offshore wind refers more generally to any wind over open water. Offshore wind farms take advantage of the higher
wind speeds available over the sea, but are usually placed near coasts to reduce costs and to take advantage of daily
flows of sea and land breezes. Nearshore wind farms are those closest to land, while others are further out to sea.