A comparative analysis of the sea breeze on the Texas Gulf Coast and its impact on precipitation

Abstract

An analysis of the sea breeze, its mechanisms and correlation with precipitation was performed in two cases for an urban city on the Gulf Coast where the first case examined pure sea breezes and the second investigated those associated with a likelihood for appreciable inland precipitation. Adjacent study areas to the east and west were used as background conditions to determine if changes in Houston's sea breeze are controlled by urbanization or climate change. Sea breeze days were selected by a three-filter algorithm using the difference in land and sea surface temperatures, ΔTSB, as well as geostrophic and surface winds. Results showed a decrease of 3–21% in sea breeze days between cases in the Houston area. Case 2 exhibited the most (e.g., 524 sea breeze days) and greatest increase (0.63 day yr−1) in sea breeze days in Beaumont, driven by an increase in land surface temperature which is statistically significant (p-value = 0.02) and decrease in sea surface temperature leading to an increase in ΔTSB, again with statistical significance (p-value = 0.01). Precipitation has increased by at least 1.07 × 10−8 mm day−1, with the greatest increase of 2.59 × 10−8 mm day−1 in Beaumont. The only increase in precipitation that was not found to be statistically significant existed for the most inland station in Houston. Based on an areal analysis of land cover, Houston is significantly more urban than the adjacent study areas: 65.8% of its area falls into the four developed classes, and these classes have increased by 11.4% between 2001 and 2019. Comparatively, Beaumont and Victoria are 16.8% and 7.16% developed, and urban development increased by 1.20% and 0.61%, respectively, over the same period. This indicates the possibility that the roughness elements in Houston's built environment interfere with the sea breeze, while climate change has driven its increase in Beaumont and decrease in Victoria as evidenced by our reported changes in meteorological variables.