A diurnal, thermally driven circulation in which a surface convergence zone often exists between airstreams having over-water versus over-land histories. The sea breeze is one of the most frequently occurring small-scale (mesoscale) weather systems. It results from the unequal sensible heat flux of the lower atmosphere over adjacent solar-heated land and water masses. Because of the large thermal inertia of a water body, during daytime the air temperature changes little over the water while over land the air mass warms. Occurring during periods of fair skies and generally weak large-scale winds, the sea breeze is recognizable by a wind shift to onshore, generally several hours after sunrise. On many tropical coastlines the sea breeze is an almost daily occurrence. It also occurs with regularity during the warm season along mid-latitude coastlines and even occasionally on Arctic shores. Especially during periods of very light winds, similar though sometimes weaker wind systems occur over the shores of large lakes and even wide rivers and estuaries (lake breezes, river breezes). At night, colder air from the land often will move offshore as a land breeze. Typically the land breeze circulation is much weaker and shallower than its daytime counterpart.Atmospheric general circulation Meteorology

The occurrence and strength of the sea breeze is controlled by a variety of factors, including land-sea surface temperature differences; latitude and day of the year; the synoptic wind and its orientation with respect to the shoreline; the thermal stability of the lower atmosphere; surface solar radiation as affected by haze, smoke, and stratiform and convective cloudiness; and the geometry of the shoreline and the complexity of the surrounding terrain. Wind