# Des Moines, IA UV Index Today — hourly UV forecast

> Source: https://breathecheck.com/uv-index/us/iowa/des-moines/
> UV index in Des Moines, IA right now, today's peak and the hour it arrives, on the EPA scale. Modelled data, labelled as modelled.

# Des Moines, IA UV Index Today

Modelled for 14 Sep 2026, 22:00 UTC · GMT-5

## What is the UV index in Des Moines right now?

1.4 Low

EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people.

Today's peak is 6.2 ( High ) at about 1pm local time.

## When is UV strongest in Des Moines today?

UV in Des Moines peaks at 6.2 (High) around 1pm local time (GMT-5). It stays at 6 or above — the high band — for 2 hours, roughly 1pm to 3pm. UV is 3 or above for 6 hours.

Local time, midnight to midnight. Bar colour is the EPA UV band, never restyled.

## Des Moines today, in numbers

- **Latitude**: 41.6°N — 37 of 121 from the north

- **Today's peak**: 6.2 (High) — 77 of 121 nationally

- **Peak arrives**: 1pm local (GMT-5)

- **At or above 6**: 2 hours, 1pm to 3pm

- **At or above 3**: 6 hours, 11am to 5pm

The window from 1pm to 3pm is the practical answer for Des Moines today. Nationally today the spread runs 11.4 in Hilo (20°N) to 1.3 in Fargo (47°N). Why latitude and the clock decide this →

## Corn Belt haze above, snow glare below

The ground around Des Moines does more to exposure here than the sun’s angle does. The city sits at 41.6°N, level with Chicago and Cleveland, on flat prairie at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers, with nothing tall between the horizons to break up sky or cast shade. What changes across the year is the surface, and it works in opposite directions in the two halves of it.

From July into August the cropland surrounding the metro transpires heavily, dew points climb into the seventies, and the sky whitens instead of turning blue. Water vapor absorbs very little ultraviolet. A haze that takes the glare off the visible light is not necessarily taking much off the reading, so the washed-out look of an Iowa August afternoon and the number it posts often disagree.

Winter reverses the arrangement. The EPA advises extra caution near snow because snow reflects the sun’s rays, and central Iowa offers that in its fullest form: flat, open, largely unshaded ground that can hold continuous cover for weeks at a stretch. The sun is at its lowest angle of the year, and on a bright morning after a fresh fall the light is arriving from below as well as from above.

## Nearest metros we model

UV changes with latitude, not with a city boundary, so a neighbour a hundred miles north reads differently for a reason.

## What does Des Moines’s UV index mean today?

1.4 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Des Moines also reaches High at its peak — a different band from the one it is in right now, which is why the hour matters as much as the day.

The scale is open-ended: 11 is where the named bands stop, not the maximum. All five bands, with the EPA guidance for each →

## Modelled, not measured

The UV figures for Des Moines are computed by the Copernicus atmosphere model, not read off an instrument here — unlike the AQI on our air-quality pages, which comes from a regulatory monitor . Cloud is where a UV model is weakest. What that means in practice →

## Questions about UV in Des Moines

**What is the UV index in Des Moines today?**

1.4 right now (Low), peaking at 6.2 around 1pm local time. UV stays at 6 or above for 2 hours, from about 1pm to 3pm. This is a modelled value, not a ground measurement.

**When is UV strongest in Des Moines today?**

Around 1pm local time (GMT-5), not at noon — solar noon drifts across a timezone and daylight saving moves it later on the clock.

**Is this measured or modelled?**

Modelled. The figures come from the Copernicus atmosphere model via Open-Meteo , unlike the AQI on our air-quality pages, which is read from an EPA regulatory monitor. Cloud cover is where a UV model is weakest.

## Related

On this page

Air quality alerts

We alert on AQI, not UV — UV is predictable from the calendar, air quality is not.

Updated 14 Sep 2026, 22:00 UTC