Sea breezes

SEA BREEZES Name: Grade Course: Tutor’s Name: (28th, June, 2011) Sea Breezes A sea breeze is defined as a thermally-forced circulation along coastal boundaries. To understand and forecast sea breezes, one requires the knowledge of coastline shape, mountain/valley locations land cover synoptic-scale weather. There are several situations when sea breezes are known to occur:-spring to autumn, when land gets warmer than ocean, relatively weak synoptic-scale flow, in clear conditions. Sea breeze is known to affect convention, coastal winds and coastal fogs. Sea breeze reaches peak at leading edge of temperature gradient resembling shallow cold front referred to as sea breeze front which is a favored location for convection. It penetrates inland typically for 25 miles for up to 100-200 miles with onshore flow. The wind direction occurs on the inland, along surface pressure gradient or perpendicular to coastline. Sea breeze wind direction is dependent only on the local coastline orientation. Sea breezes are formed mid to late morning ho...