Land-sea breeze effects

Yesterday I noticed that Benton Harbor’s temperature reading was close to the 70s when the rest of the area was still in the mid 50s, this is likely due to the land-sea breeze effect, the idea that large bodies of water help regulate temperatures. The atmosphere always wants to be in balance, and when the sun is out the air above the land heats up quicker than above the water. The air rises and creates a localized low pressure at the surface. Cooler air from over the water moves over to fill that pressure gap, leaving another pressure gap that gets filled by the air that used to be above the land. The process also usually gets reversed at night, especially when the winds are calmer, which could also cause fog.

Like I said previously I was tipped off to this effect happening yesterday morning, when the sensor at Benton Harbor was reading almost 70 degrees when the rest of us where in the mid 50s. This shows some of the temperatures from yesterday, and we can see the land-sea breeze effect helped regulate temperatures a little more in the afternoon as well, still sticking in the 70s when the rest of us were scraping the 80s. A big component of this cooling has also been the strong westerly winds we have been getting over the past couple days, and when those change the effect could be less prevalent, especially overnight. And if we look at some of the forecasted temperatures today and tomorrow, we can see these temperatures are slightly more regulated.