AbstractThree case studies of the nocturnal jet at dawn are presented. Observations were made over southern England where the terrain is considerably less homogeneous than that over which previous published data concerning the jet have been obtained, for example the Great Plains and Wangara.It is shown that previously suggested layer models of the boundary layer can be usefully quantified to give the diurnal evolution of a layer‐average wind. This model, which involves a decoupling of the flow in middle levels from surface constraints by thermal stratification at night, exhibits a nocturnal jet. Two surface‐stress parameterizations, which make the stress proportional to the velocity and to the velocity squared, give a similar wind evolution.The observed abrupt transition in boundary layer structure soon after sunrise is studied by considering the growth and transfer characteristics of perturbations to a homogeneous Boussinesq fluid, which is stratified and possesses an idealized jet wind structure. Depending on the value of an average Richardson number, Ri, two regimes of dynamically unstable eddies are indicated. When +0.35 ≳ Ri −0.03 the preferred eddies are oriented transverse to the shear and when Ri ≲−0.03 they are oriented parallel to the shear. the latter regime, associated with longitudinal convective circulations, is efficient at smoothing the jet momentum distribution to give the characteristic well‐mixed daytime wind profile.