The economy and urbanization are prosperous in coastal areas, highly dependeod on the changes of weather and climate, and disasters induced by severe convective weather become more serious. This convective weather is closely associated with the sea breeze circulation. Therefore, the study of sea breeze thunderstorm receives increasing and extensive attention, and becomes the major object of meteorology and atmospheric science. The history of observation investigations and numerical studies of sea breeze thunderstorm over the past half century is overviewed; The current research status and important achievements are summarized, that focus on sea breeze thunderstorm structure and characteristics including the thermodynamic and dynamic conditions, the process of evolution and its trigger mechanism. The research directions are discussed and some issues and topics are addressed for future study.