Sea and Land Breezes

Abstract

Sea and land breezes represent fundamental types of coastal mesoscale meteorological phenomena. They result from the uneven heating of land and sea, which induces mesoscale pressure and therefore circulation oscillations between day and night. The onshore sea breeze occurs by day, peaking in afternoon, and the offshore land breeze occurs nocturnally, peaking near sunrise. The Florida peninsula has a double-sea breeze—from both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Analogous processes occur when the water body is a large lake, in which case, the lake breeze occurs during afternoon hours. When well-organized along a homogeneous coastline, the sea breeze can form a sea-breeze front. The shape of a coastline also has a major impact on the timing and location of convergence associated with the sea breeze and the sea-breeze front. In order for a land or sea breeze circulation to develop, there must be a temperature difference between the land and the adjacent sea.