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Des Moines, IA UV Index Today

Modelled for · 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.

Omaha, NE 123 mi · 41.3°N peak 6.7 Kansas City, MO 180 mi · 39.1°N peak 7.4 St. Paul, MN 232 mi · 44.9°N peak 2.7

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.

Des Moines air qualityThe AQI, from a regulatory monitor rather than a model UV across the USWhere Des Moines sits against every metro we track

Updated