Tide Change & Wind Picking Up

[balkantrek]

I was born and raised on the north Kent coast and have always noticed, even on the sunniest summer days, that very often in the afternoon a chilly breeze picks up blowing in off the sea. My mother always used to say that "The tide has changed". Can anybody tell me, does this actually have anything to do with the change in tide? If so, is it connected to an ebb or flow tide in particular? Or if not, is it in some way connected with the change from morning to afternoon? It always seemed to be in the early afternoon that the wind got stronger and more nippy.

[Garden Carpet]

Originally Posted by balkantrek

I was born and raised on the north Kent coast and have always noticed, even on the sunniest summer days, that very often in the afternoon a chilly breeze picks up blowing in off the sea. My mother always used to say that "The tide has changed". Can anybody tell me, does this actually have anything to do with the change in tide? If so, is it connected to an ebb or flow tide in particular? Or if not, is it in some way connected with the change from morning to afternoon? It always seemed to be in the early afternoon that the wind got stronger and more nippy.

I lived in Guernsey for 26 yrs and was told the very same thing.
jaki

[Kymba]

I grew up in Devon and close to the sea and was told the same.
We were always told that you could tell when the tide was comming in because the breeze or wind would get up,and it did seem to, But i dont know if this is true

[Lords and Ladies]

Originally Posted by balkantrek

... even on the sunniest summer days, that very often in the afternoon a chilly breeze picks up blowing in off the sea. My mother always used to say that "The tide has changed".

Hi balkantrek. Unless my school lied to me it's nothing to do with the tides. These sea breezes are caused by the sun (or lack of it) and the different rates at which the land and the sea warm up and cool down. In the earlier part of the day, the land warms up more quickly than the sea so the air above the land tends to rise and be replaced by cooler sea air, sea-to-land breeze. Later in the day, the land tends to cool more quickly than the sea so you get the same effect but the opposite way around, a land-to-sea breeze.

I'd imagine the hotter the day the greater this effect would be.

[balkantrek]

Interesting...The problem is that this is the opposite of what we experience....it is in the afternoon that the wind starts to blow in off the sea!

[nightshade]

Incoming tides would have a local cooling effect,in the main it is as
Lords and Ladies has said a pressure difference twixt land and sea
It is possible to smell rain approaching and a temperature drop

[thunder]

According to my little book "in nearly all latitudes" the land breeze sets in at about 8 o'clock in the evening and reaches its peak strength at 3 in the morning. The sea breeze sets in at about 9 or 10 in the morning and reaches its peak at about 3 in the afternoon.

(A short course in elementary meteorology by W H Pick published by HMSO)

henrya