If there’s a cliff at the coast, mechanical lifting of the airmass coming from the ocean. Air goes up, cools down, water condenses to clouds.
The wind direction in my OP above
which would be the opposite in this case.
Is simply the land being warmer than the sea, so the air over the land is rising causing it to cool and clouds form?
I’ve often seen this flying over the Irish Sea. I can often first tell where the UK land mass is from the line of cloud, well before I can actually make out any land.
I’ve often flown down the UK coast, tracking along the coast line, as I didn’t want to descent yet, but over the land was a solid overcast and the sea was clear and gave an easy opportunity to descent when I need to.
Peter wrote:
which would be the opposite in this caseThe opposite works as well. Over the flat sea there is less friction, the BL gets thinner, the airmass can descend and warm up, disolving the clouds.
