quote:
well in perth, if its too hot, the breeze doesn't show
But is there no breeze cos it's too hot or is it too hot cos there's no breeze or ?....something about a chicken and an egg?.
As for the rumour GreenPat, I'm no meteorologist but I did a quick bit of Googling and found out the following.
Water can store roughly 5 times the amount of heat energy that soil can and has a thermal conductivity (rate of heat transfer) 4 times that of soil. Not only that but because it is a fluid it is being mixed by wind, waves, tide and thermo dynamics so it can absorb even more energy because of the immensely greater mass available. I imagine that as long as this differential exists between the ocean and the land the seabreeze will persist.
However I did see something on the telly a while back about global warming and how - as the oceans warm and the ice packs melt there is less temperature difference between the equator and the poles which means there is less thermal circulation in the atmosphere ie the trade winds, the roaring 40's, etc, start to diminish. Not only that but as the water heats up it holds less oxygen and therefore less plant life can be sustained and less CO2 can be absorbed (70% of the earths plants exist in the oceans....apparently).
J-P
