A statistical method for quantifying the effect of the sea-breeze circulation on the total local wind at Houston, Texas is demonstrated. Through a linear regression modeling technique, the total diurnal variance in the winds at a NOAA buoy located just offshore from Galveston, Texas is partitioned into variance attributable to synoptic, sea-breeze, and “other” factors. The factor explaining the largest share of the daily variance on any given day is deemed the primary factor influencing local winds that day, either synoptic, sea-breeze, or undetermined.

The results of this quantification technique are applied to the 2006 field intensive portion of the Second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS2). Sea-breeze dominant days, as well as days exhibiting periods of stagnation or recirculation are identified. The air quality on these days is compared to the air quality on other days during the field intensive, and the number of such days in 2006 is compared to past seasons. The results suggest that the sea-breeze was not as influential during the 2006 campaign as it was during the first Texas Air Quality Study in 2000 and that sea-breeze dominated recirculation days were not the most polluted days of the 2006 study, unlike 2000.