Land breeze

After sunset land cools faster than water. By the small hours the temperature gradient reverses: sea surface stays warmer, air over the water rises, and cooler land air drains seaward. That’s a land breeze.

Practically:

• Much weaker than its daytime sibling — typically 3–8 kt
• Strongest a few hours before dawn, dies as the sun warms the land again
• Rarely ridable, but it shows up on dawn forecasts and tells you the spot is in a “thermal regime” rather than under a synoptic gradient
• Worth knowing on light-wind tropical coasts where dawn sessions exist (Caribbean, parts of SE Asia)

If you wonder why a calm morning becomes a 22-kt afternoon, the same coastline is running both halves of the same cycle. See Sea Breeze 101 for the full mechanism.