Thermal wind

Thermal wind is the umbrella term for any wind driven by uneven heating of the ground (land/sea, valley/ridge, snow/dirt). The sun warms surfaces at different rates, the warmer air rises, cooler air rushes in to replace it. Everything runs on a daily cycle — wind tracks the sun and dies with it.

The thermal family:

• Sea breeze — onshore daytime flow, the most rideable thermal
• Land breeze — its weaker nighttime offshore opposite
• Anabatic wind — upslope flow on sun-warmed mountainsides
• Valley wind / mountain wind — daily reversal along an aligned valley (Garda’s Pelèr / Ora is the textbook pair)
• Lake breeze — small-scale sea-breeze cousin on large lakes (Garda, Erie, Balaton)

Two things every rider should know:

• Thermal winds need a weak gradient. Strong synoptic flow overrides them.
• Coarse models (GFS) flatten thermals. Mesoscale models (ICON, AROME) resolve them. If your forecast app says 8 kt on a sunny coastal afternoon and the high-res one says 22, the high-res one is usually right.

Deeper dive in Sea Breeze 101 and the wider taxonomy in Types of Wind.