King Land Breeze Sea Breeze Mountain Breeze And Valley Breeze

Sea, Land, Mountain and Valley Breeze

By Kaylie McDonald

When you think of the about the ocean you think about sand, water and wind. The wind wouldn't be there without the sand and water. Together these two things create two special types of wind called Sea Breeze and Land Breeze.

Sea Breeze
A sea breeze starts from the ocean or the sea. The sun's rays beam down to the ocean and to the sand or the earth. Both the earth and the water warm up. The water warms up, but much slower than the earth and eventually the earth warms the air above it with conduction and radiation. Then the warm air rises up, leaving behind low air pressure. Then that air expands and eventually it cools off and falls down into the ocean, creating high air pressure. Then the high air pressure has to move somewhere so it rushes to the low air pressure on land. And this creates the wind or sea breeze.
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Land Breeze
Land Breeze is just the opposite. At night he water is warmer than the earth because it warms and cools slower than the sand or earth. This time the water heats up the air above it. That air rises and low air pressure is left behind. It rises up and expands and eventually the air cools and falls, some of it onto the sand or earth. With all that air moving in it creates high air pressure and that high air pressure has to move, so it rushes out over the ocean creating wind or land breeze.
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Valley Breeze
Mountains have special winds just like the seashore. The winds are called valley breeze and mountain breeze. Valley breeze occurs during the day and mountain breeze happens at night. During the day the valley floor warms and it heats the air and that air rises up the slopes of the surrounding mountains and leaves behind low air pressure. Like sea breeze or land breeze the air expands and cools eventually it falls down into the center of the valley, bringing with it high air pressure. And that air pressure just has to move, so it rushes over to the low air pressure left at the bottom of the mountains creating wind or a valley breeze.
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Mountain Breeze
Like sea breeze and land breeze mountain breeze is just the opposite of valley breeze. At night the valley floor is cooling, but it is not yet cold enough to not heat the air. This time it rises straight up through the middle because the mountain sides are already cool. The warm air leaves behind low pressure and rises quickly in the cool night air, but soon enough it becomes cool again and slides down the cool mountain sides until it reaches the valley floor. Now there is high pressure at the slopes of the mountains and low pressure in the middle of the valley. All that high pressure rushes it meet the low pressure air thus creating wind or mountain breeze.
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