Note: You can click on the movie to the right to see a visual of the meteorological process explained in this article.

Besides the drenching rains that occurred earlier this week over southern Maine, a majority of the state has been enjoying plenty of sunshine and well above average temperatures. Since we are beginning to embark on the warmer seasons, we will begin to see larger temperature differences between the air on land, as opposed to the air over the ocean. Yup, you guessed it, the sea breeze is going to be an important part of our forecasting. With this phenomenon in effect, the coastal locations one day might hold steady in the upper 40s, while areas a few miles inland will be in the middle 60s.

During the late morning and afternoon hours, the land would warm up much quicker than the water. Furthermore, the water would be cooler than the adjacent landmass. Therefore, the warmer land would have a relatively lower pressure than the water, because warmer air has less density (or "weight"). From that notion, the cooler water would have a relatively high pressure because cooler air is denser (or has more "weight").

Since wind flows from high to low pressure, wind will flow from the water to the land. Cooler air will ooze into the coastline keeping those locations cooler than the inland areas during the afternoon hours. The sea breeze is an example of a small scaled weather phenomenon, and sometimes the small scaled events can create the biggest differences.

Print this Story

Recent Stories