How come wind coming from the ocean tends to be strong? How is it not losing momentum before it reaches shore?
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The basic idea is that the land heats up faster than the sea, so the air above the land is heated and rises. This causes a drop in pressure which is filled by the cooler air from the ocean.
TL;DR it doesn’t lose momentum because it isn’t “pushed” by the sea; it’s “pulled” by the land.
In the day the land heats up more than the sea causing an on shore breeze, in the night the la cooks down more than the sea causing an off shore breeze. The wind is caused by the heat difference between them so it is strongest on the shore.
Why would it lose momentum? No, seriously, why? There is nothing to stop it from moving because the ocean is a featureless plain that can’t stop the wind because there is nothing in the way.
Also, wind is caused by a pressure difference. It goes from high to low pressure. Because land heats up faster than water the air over land will also heat up faster. This causes it to become less dense, and thus rise, and have a power pressure. Then the air from the ocean comes in and replaces and gets pulled in by that low pressure. It can be a very large difference actually, noticeable by us. Then with the fact that nothing is in the way, the winds get very fast. This is also why even on a windy day inside a forest you won’t feel much of a breeze, the trees stop the wind.
The wind is actually going to want to be the strongest along the shore vs inland or out to sea. The shoreline is where you get the massive temperature shift between the water and the ground, which means it has the potential to generate a massive thermal current at the shoreline which would feel like strong wind.
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