Main Cause
The sea has a greater heat capacity than land and can therefore absorb more heat than the 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. The warm air is less dense and so it rises. This rising air over the land lowers the sea level pressure by about 0.2%. The cooler air above the sea, now with higher sea level pressure, flows towards the land into the lower pressure, creating a cooler breeze near the coast. The strength of the sea breeze is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the land and the sea. If the environmental wind field is greater than 8 knots and opposing the direction of a possible sea breeze, the sea breeze is not likely to develop.
Read more about this topic: Sea Breeze
Famous quotes containing the word main:
“The main reason why men and women make different aesthetic judgments is the fact that the latter, generally incapable of abstraction, only admire what meets their complete approval.”
—Franz Grillparzer (17911872)
“Of all wits uses, the main one
Is to live well with who has none.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)