BreatheCheck LIVE Get alerts

Minneapolis, MN UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-5

What is the UV index in Minneapolis right now?

0.6 Low

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

Today's peak is 2.7 (Moderate) at about 12pm local time.

When is UV strongest in Minneapolis today?

UV in Minneapolis peaks at 2.7 (Moderate) around 12pm local time (GMT-5). It does not reach the high band at any hour today.

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

Minneapolis today, in numbers

Latitude
45.0°N — 10 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
2.7 (Moderate) — 117 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
12pm local (GMT-5)
At or above 6
not today
At or above 3
not today

Minneapolis stays in the Low band all day 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 hundred days of snow under a low sun

Snow lies continuously on the ground in the Twin Cities for about a hundred days in an average year, from roughly November 21 to April 2 in the Minnesota state climatology record. That is the local variable the index does not carry. WHO puts fresh snow’s reflectance at up to 80 percent, against under 10 percent for grass, so on a clear day over snow the light arriving at face level runs well above what a downward-looking number implies.

The two halves of that window behave differently. In December the noon sun reaches only about 22 degrees at 45.0°N, and reflection is adding to a small figure. By late February and March the sun has climbed most of the way back while the cover is still down. That overlap, rather than midsummer, is when the distance between the posted number and what someone out on the ice actually takes is at its widest.

What separates this city from Seattle, at a comparable northern latitude, is what the winter sky does. Continental air behind a cold front leaves clean, dry conditions with excellent transmission, and clear cold days are a normal part of a Minnesota January rather than an event. Put that together and the day this page is least useful is not in July. It is a bright morning in the first half of March, with the lakes still frozen and nobody thinking about the sun.

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.

St. Paul, MN 9 mi · 44.9°N peak 2.7 Madison, WI 233 mi · 43.1°N peak 4.5 Des Moines, IA 234 mi · 41.6°N peak 6.2

What does Minneapolis’s UV index mean today?

0.6 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Minneapolis also reaches Moderate 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 Minneapolis 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 Minneapolis

What is the UV index in Minneapolis today?

0.6 right now (Low), peaking at 2.7 around 12pm local time. It does not reach the high band today. This is a modelled value, not a ground measurement.

When is UV strongest in Minneapolis today?

Around 12pm 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.

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

Updated