1 Sea breeze

• During a summer day the sand and rocks of the beach warm quickly (low c) while the sea warms slowly (high c).
• The air above the land is heated by the hot ground; it expands, its density decreases, and it rises.
• The cooler air over the sea surface, which is denser, moves toward the land to replace the rising warm air.
• This horizontal air movement from sea to land is the sea breeze.
• (At night the land cools faster than the sea, the temperature difference reverses, and a land breeze blows from land to sea.)

More generally, the oceans and large lakes moderate the climate of nearby land: coastal regions have smaller differences between day and night and between summer and winter than inland deserts at the same latitude.