Convection in the Atmosphere, a Closer Look

Egypt, land of the Pharaohs home of the mighty pyramids, and provide a fairly cheap, all-inclusive beach package holidays. Hello there, I'm here today on the Red Sea coast in Egypt to explain to you how sea breezes work. It's daytime in Egypt and what a lovely sea breeze it is. I can feel it gently blowing in my face as it comes from the sea to the land.

But, why?

Well, it’s all down to convection. During the day, the land it's a much quicker than the water therefore the land’s hot and the water’s cold. The hot air above the land becomes less dense and rises. This means that cold, more dense air from over the chilly sea is drawn in to take its place. It's this moving cold air that we feel as a sea breeze as it moves from the sea onto the land; and what a strong breeze it is too.

But as day turns to night, something strange happens.

It's now nighttime, I can tell that sort of thing. The situation has changed. The land now is cooling down much, much faster than the sea. Okay, so the sea is actually hotter than the land. What do you think is going to happen? What do you think will happen?

Press pause now… too late, time’s up!

As I said before, it's nighttime the land has cooled down quicker. The sea retained its heat therefore the hot air is rising above the sea and the cold air is being drawn in from the land towards the sea. The wind directions been reversed. Sea that way and land that way, the wind is toward the sea. In nighttime, wind directions change from the land towards the sea.

So, there we have it. Sea breezes a wind explained by convection.