Land breeze, a local wind system characterized by a flow from land to water late at night. Land breezes alternate with sea breezes along coastlines adjacent to large bodies of water. Both are induced by differences that occur between the heating or cooling of the water surface and the adjacent land surface. The land breeze is typically shallower than the sea breeze since the cooling of the atmosphere over land is confined to a shallower layer at night than the heating of the air during the day. Since the surface flow of the land breeze terminates over water, a region of low-level air convergence is produced. Locally, such convergence often induces the upward movement of air, fostering the development of clouds. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see clouds lying off the coast at night, which are later dissipated by the daytime sea breeze.
Sea breeze, a local wind system characterized by a flow from sea to land during the day. Sea breezes alternate with land breezes along the coastal regions of oceans or large lakes in the absence of a strong large-scale wind system during periods of strong daytime heating or nighttime cooling. Those who live within 30 to 40 km (about 19 to 25 miles) of the coastline often experience the cooler 10- to 20-km- (about 6- to 12-mile-) per-hour winds of the sea breeze on a sunny afternoon only to find it turn into a sultry land breeze late at night. Since the surface flow of the sea breeze terminates over land, a region of low-level air convergence is produced. Locally, such convergence often induces the upward movement of air, fostering the development of clouds. Such clouds may produce showers that occur over land in the afternoon.