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Old 21st Feb 2018, 19:32
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Piltdown Man
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
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As ever, RAT has a sensible answer. As for the Freemantle Doctor (the sea breeeze off the Indian Ocean around Perth) that starts off perpendicular to the coast. As the day moves on, apparently due to Coriolis Effect, the wind backs so it becomes a southerly until the sun goes down. When you leave the pub in the evening at Swanbourne it’s virtually calm. At Hobart airport a strange phenomena sometimes occurs. Both ends of the runway can have a tailwind as the air above the isthmus on which the airport is built rises. As the day continues to heat up this micro-sea breeze is killed by the overall effect of the island. The controllers there do not take the wind for granted. As for topology, I’ve regularly seen days that had a slightly westerly turn into an easterly as the sun sets. One evening at Dunstable I was passenger in balloon that did a vertical circuit. We landed back within 10 metres from where we took off. The upper air was still westerly but the colder, lower layers flowed against the prevailing wind to lower levels as it sank.

It would therefore be safe to say topology, surface, albido, latitude are all factors (with many others) that control sea breezes.
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