Land and Sea Breeze
Land and sea breezes are terms used to describe small-scale, local wind patterns found along coastal regions, or regions bordering bodies of water. These wind patterns arise due to the fact the water and land heat and cool at different rates creating pressure differences that generally drives the wind either towards the land during the day or towards the water during the night
Sea Breeze
The sea has a greater heat capacity than land, so the surface of the sea warms up slower than the surface of the land during the day. As the temperature of the land rises, it heats the air above it. The warming air expands and becomes less dense, decreasing the pressure over the land near the coast. The air above the sea has a relatively higher pressure since it is not as hot, causing air near the coast to flow towards the lower pressure over land. A sea breeze is a common occurrence along coasts after sunrise.
Land Breeze
At night, the land cools faster than the water. If the land becomes cooler than an adjacent water 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. If there is sufficient moisture and instability available, the land breeze can cause showers, or even thunderstorms, over the water. The land breeze will die once the land warms up again the next morning.
