An urban thermal plume describes rising air in the lower altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere caused by urban areas being warmer than surrounding areas. Over the past thirty years there has been increasing interest in what have been called urban heat islands (UHI), but it is only since 2007 that thought has been given to the rising columns of warm air, or ‘thermal plumes’ that they produce. Common on-shore breezes at the seaside on a warm day, and off-shore breezes at night are caused by the land heating up faster on a sunny day and cooling faster after sunset, respectively. Thermals, or warm airs, that rise from the land and sea affect the local microscale meteorology; and perhaps at times the mesometeorology. Urban thermal plumes have as powerful although less localized an effect.