What causes wind to flow from water to land during the day?

Wind flows from water to land during the day primarily due to the difference in heating rates between land and water. During the day, the sun heats the land surface much more quickly than it does the water body. As the land warms up, the air above it also heats up and becomes lighter, causing it to rise. This creates an area of lower pressure over the heated land.

Conversely, since the water retains its heat more effectively and heats up more slowly, the air above the water remains cooler and denser, leading to a higher pressure area. The pressure difference between the cooler, higher-pressure air over the water and the warmer, lower-pressure air over the land causes the wind to flow from the water to the land.

In this scenario, the other choices do not adequately describe the mechanism at work. The ground indeed cools down quicker at night, but this is not the cause of the daytime winds shifting from water to land. The formation of high pressure does occur, but it is the differential heating and resulting pressure changes that primarily drive the wind flow. Increased cloud cover can affect temperatures and heating rates, but it is not a direct factor in the daily wind pattern of air movement from water to land.