Why do coastal areas in summer experience sea breezes, but only seldom land breezes?
Anyone who has spent time along an ocean, sea, or even a lake on a warm, clear summer day has likely experienced the cool, refreshing winds of a sea breeze, which is a result of the differences in how land and water heat up. Land heats up more quickly than water, giving rise to lower pressure at the surface over land compared to the relatively higher pressure over the water. This difference in pressure causes air to flow onshore, creating a sea breeze. To experience a land breeze, however, you generally have to wait until after sunset when land onshore begins to cool down more quickly than the water offshore, creating higher pressure over land and an offshore flow — a land breeze. Land breezes tend to be weaker than sea breezes and generally affect smaller areas. If water remains cooler than the land at night, due to ocean upwelling, for example, a land breeze may not form at all. (Answered by Sean Potter, a certified consulting meteorologist and science writer in Washington, D.C.
