AccuWeather Meteorologist Melissa Constanzer explains sea breezes-a phenomenon commonly observed near beaches.

Sea breezes occur when cooler air from over a large body of water moves inland, replacing warmer air over the land. This phenomenon is driven by the difference in how quickly land and water heat up and cool down. As the sun heats the land, the air above it warms, becomes less dense, and rises, creating a lower pressure area. Cooler, higher-pressure air from over the water then moves in to replace it, forming the sea breeze.

This process can create a distinct boundary known as the sea breeze boundary, which can be strong enough to trigger showers and thunderstorms as it moves inland. Sea breezes can be observed not only along ocean coastlines but also near large lakes, and their effects are sometimes visible on weather radar.

What is a sea breeze?

Seabreeze, it's a common phenomenon. If you've been at some beaches to encounter a breeze that blows in from the water so basically wind off of a large body of water which means yes, it can happen on the Great Lakes. You can have a lake breeze for example. But what is that sea breeze? Why does it happen so often? Because on the East Coast, typically our winds come out of the West across the US. So why do we get so many coming in from the East on those East Coast beaches? It's actually driven ultimately by temperature, but mostly what that temperature does is create a pressure difference. So pressure is what drives winds for us, but the temperature will help us get those pressure differences. And then that direction of the wind is always going to work its way from higher pressure to lower pressure, so that will drive our circulation. Large bodies of water heat up and cool down a little bit slower than land. If you think about it, that pool temperature never really changes on a hot summer day, but the air just above the pool certainly can very quickly. So we know that those temperature differences can occur on air in air lot faster than they can care and water, which makes a difference. If we start off one morning at the beach, temperatures in the upper 70s, more or less the same over land over water. Now let's heat things up throughout the day with some of that sunshine out there and all of a sudden the numbers go off to the races near 90 degrees. That warmer air has a lower pressure, is a little bit less dense for example, so it's going to start to rise and as it rises, that will allow that cooler air that is over the water to rush its way into shore, creating a boundary. That you see, that's that sea breeze boundary and this boundary can be prominent enough. Actually, as it works its way inland from that cool air throughout the course of the day, that it can kick up showers and thunderstorms so we can capture sea breezes on radar. We can even see some of those thunderstorms over land because of it.

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