# Kansas City, MO UV Index Today — hourly UV forecast

> Source: https://breathecheck.com/uv-index/us/missouri/kansas-city/
> UV index in Kansas City, MO right now, today's peak and the hour it arrives, on the EPA scale. Modelled data, labelled as modelled.

# Kansas City, MO UV Index Today

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

## What is the UV index in Kansas City right now?

1.6 Low

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

Today's peak is 7.4 ( High ) at about 1pm local time.

## When is UV strongest in Kansas City today?

UV in Kansas City peaks at 7.4 (High) around 1pm local time (GMT-5). It stays at 6 or above — the high band — for 3 hours, roughly 12pm to 3pm. UV is 3 or above for 7 hours.

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

## Kansas City today, in numbers

- **Latitude**: 39.1°N — 63 of 121 from the north

- **Today's peak**: 7.4 (High) — 44 of 121 nationally

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

- **At or above 6**: 3 hours, 12pm to 3pm

- **At or above 3**: 7 hours, 10am to 5pm

The window from 12pm to 3pm is the practical answer for Kansas City 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 →

## A high spring sun behind range-fire smoke

Spring is when Kansas City’s sky and its sun stop agreeing. By the equinox in late March the noon sun here is already back to about 51 degrees above the horizon, halfway between the winter floor and the summer ceiling and climbing fast. That is also the window when prescribed range fire runs in the Flint Hills, upwind to the south and west, and the plumes that ride north across eastern Kansas can put a brown cast over the metro on an afternoon with no cloud in it. A discolored March or April sky here is not the same thing as an overcast one.

The rest of the year is ordinary continental geometry. At 39.1 degrees north the midday sun reaches about 74 degrees at the June solstice and about 27 at the December one, close to the swing Baltimore and Sacramento run on the same dates. Summers over the lower Missouri valley are humid, and the cumulus that builds through a July afternoon cuts the index for twenty minutes at a stretch and then hands it back.

The clock is slightly out too. Kansas City keeps Central time from about four and a half degrees west of the 90th meridian that zone is defined from, so its solar noon runs roughly eighteen minutes behind Memphis, which sits almost exactly on that line. That is not a large gap, but it is enough that the strongest part of a June day here falls after lunch rather than at it.

## 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 Kansas City’s UV index mean today?

1.6 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Kansas City 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 Kansas City 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 Kansas City

**What is the UV index in Kansas City today?**

1.6 right now (Low), peaking at 7.4 around 1pm local time. UV stays at 6 or above for 3 hours, from about 12pm to 3pm. This is a modelled value, not a ground measurement.

**When is UV strongest in Kansas City 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