# Salt Lake City, UT UV Index Today — hourly UV forecast

> Source: https://breathecheck.com/uv-index/us/utah/salt-lake-city/
> UV index in Salt Lake City, UT right now, today's peak and the hour it arrives, on the EPA scale. Modelled data, labelled as modelled.

# Salt Lake City, UT UV Index Today

Modelled for 14 Sep 2026, 22:00 UTC · GMT-6

## What is the UV index in Salt Lake City right now?

3.6 Moderate

EPA suggests shade around midday, a hat and sunglasses.

Today's peak is 7 ( High ) at about 1pm local time.

## When is UV strongest in Salt Lake City today?

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

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

## Salt Lake City today, in numbers

- **Latitude**: 40.8°N — 44 of 121 from the north

- **Today's peak**: 7 (High) — 57 of 121 nationally

- **Peak arrives**: 1pm local (GMT-6)

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

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

The window from 12pm to 3pm is the practical answer for Salt Lake 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 →

## Altitude and snowpack push the same direction

Salt Lake City’s valley floor sits near 4,226 feet, about 1,288 meters, which by WHO’s altitude rule works out to something like 13 percent more UV than a sea-level city on the same parallel. The parallel itself is unremarkable. At 40.8°N this is essentially New York City’s line on the globe, and what separates the two is thin air, not sun angle.

Snow is the second multiplier, and it runs on a longer calendar than most people account for. WHO’s guidance is that fresh snow almost doubles a person’s UV exposure. The Wasatch holds that surface at elevation into May while the valley below has already gone brown, so a spring afternoon in Big or Little Cottonwood Canyon stacks both effects at once: more altitude, and a reflective floor throwing light back up.

Winter runs the other way, briefly. When a cold-air pool settles over the Salt Lake Valley, the haze under the lid scatters part of what would otherwise reach the street. Drive up out of it and the top of the inversion is a visible line across the mountainside. The canyons above sit in clear air several thousand feet higher, over snow. Two people forty minutes apart by road can spend the same February afternoon on opposite sides of that boundary, under the same sun and not the same amount of 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 Salt Lake City’s UV index mean today?

3.6 is Moderate. EPA suggests shade around midday, a hat and sunglasses. Today Salt Lake 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 Salt Lake 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 Salt Lake City

**What is the UV index in Salt Lake City today?**

3.6 right now (Moderate), peaking at 7 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 Salt Lake City today?**

Around 1pm local time (GMT-6), 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