( 293 ) 
A NOTE ON THE LAND AND SEA BREEZES OF SOUTH 
AFRICA. 
By J. R. Sutton, Sc.D., Hon. Memb. R.Met.S., F.R.S.S.Af. 
(Read Ju"ne 21, 1911.) 
There is possibly room for some doubt whether the winds Mr. A. G. 
Howard has discussed in his paper, " An Investigation into the Land and 
Sea Breezes Conditions at Port EHzabeth," are, strictly speaking, land 
and sea breezes at all. A counter-clockwise rotation of the wind round 
the sub-solar point is common enough in our latitudes both at coast 
places and inland, as well as on islands. Thus, e.g., at Kimberley there 
are prevailing winds approximately N.E. about sunrise, N.W. about noon, 
S.W. at sunset, and S.E. at midnight. An analysis of the winds of East 
London which I made some years ago showed a similar counter-clockwise 
rotation ; but with northerly winds at midnight, and southerly winds at 
noon.f The difference in time-epoch for any direction between Kimberley 
and East London is no doubt attributable to a real land-and-sea-breeze 
effect. But the deduced mechanical resultant directions indicate that 
the sea breeze — such as it is — is at its height during the early hours 
of the afternoon, while the land breeze is in evidence from before 
midnight to sunrise. So far from either breeze existing at VIII. 
and XX., these are just the times when they have both practically 
died away. 
Mr. Howard would have been upon more certain ground if he had got 
the loan of the continuous records of the anemometer belonging to Port 
* Trans. R. S. S. Af., vol. ii., pt. 2, 1911. 
t "The Winds of East London," Q. J. R. Met. S., April, 1905. See also the 
Presidential Address to Section A of the S. A. A. A. S., 1906. 
