Inland Sailing Wind Conditions

I'm not convinced the term 'sea breeze' is correct for inland waters. 

Jim C is quite right about heating and gradients.  Plymouth is a great example - on a hot day the south facing slopes of Dartmoor heat, air rises and cooler air is sucked in off the sea giving the sea breeze.

Inland waters probably get a similar effect from local features.  I have heard that Datchet can get some type of 'sea breeze' (probably should call it thermally induced breeze) from the heating of the tarmac at Heathrow. 

Can't think what local feature at Grafham or Hunts would induce this effect, but i really can't believe that its the sea breeze from the Wash.  The flow cell for that air movement would cover most of East Anglia.

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by jeffers Generally if the gradient wind is from the east and it gets reinforced by the sea breeze (and it is a hot day) Interesting: my understanding was that a sea breaze is more likely to happen if the gradient wind coming from the shore. The theory I saw was that a sea breeze happens when the land heats the air, the hot air rises, cooler air comes in from the sea to replace it and you get a circulation with the air coming from the sea at ground level and heading out again at cloud height. Thus a gradient wind heading out to sea helps kick off the circulation by pushing the rising hot air out there.

This is more likely..

In our locale, the major factor is Romney Marsh which is a sticky out bit of
reclaimed land now majorly used for farming and the crop mix plays a
part, different crops tend to produce stronger or weaker thermals.

Anyway when it does happen we get a thermally induced breeze from the
East which can be quite strong at Hythe, getting weaker at Dymchurch as
the wind lifts with the thermal updraft, whilst over at Camber the Breeze
comes off the sea from the South West in almost the opposite direction..

Interesting anomally but perfectly illustrating the updraft logic, also the
further out to sea you head at Hythe the weaker the breeze..

AS to Grafham I have been there at odd times on hot days when little
thermal swirls appear here and there but they never seemed to be
anything regular you could set your cap to. It's a weird place Grafham,
never totally figured it out, there always seemed to be different things
going on at the top end of the lake than down at the dam end shiftwise
except for the normal black puffy clouds coming over stay right..

Originally posted by bert Felixstowe to grafham on google maps is easy to get a distance on but the wash to grafham is a lot more differcult. jeffers :- "I remember several oocasions over the last couple of years when the wind suddenly filled in from nothing to a steady F3-4 in a matter of minutes". Remember jeffer`s that this happens sometimes but a sea breeze tends to happen 3 out of 4 days regularly not just several occasions over the last couple of years. Also the sea breeze has to be considered a local to the coast breeze & if it was a consitant inland breeze would & should have a differant name.

This is what I mean, because Hunts is a long way inland the conditions have to be right for the breeze to make it to us. Generally if the gradient wind is from the east and it gets reinforced by the sea breeze (and it is a hot day). These conditions don't happen very often...

At Hunts if the conditions are right we do get a sea breeze in the height of summer. it normally appears between 1 and 2pm. I remember several oocasions over the last couple of years when the wind suddenly filled in from nothing to a steady F3-4 in a matter of minutes.

Remember Felixstowe is not the closest point on the coast from Grafham, I would suggest that the Wash/Norfolk coast is closer (not by much, but Grafham is probably only 8 or 9 miles as the crow flies from Hunts).

This topic has got the old geography student in me interested!

Found this map, which gives an interesting 'average' picture of the UK