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St. Paul, MN UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-5

What is the UV index in St. Paul 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 St. Paul today?

UV in St. Paul 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.

St. Paul today, in numbers

Latitude
44.9°N — 11 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
2.7 (Moderate) — 118 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
12pm local (GMT-5)
At or above 6
not today
At or above 3
not today

St. Paul 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 twenty-two degree sun against a river bluff

St. Paul is built on and over the cut the Mississippi made. The city’s listed elevation is 823 feet and the river running through the middle of it is more than a hundred feet lower, between steep faces and the exposed white sandstone the Dakota named the place for. Downtown sits on the flat. Much of the rest of the city sits on top of the bluff line.

At 44.94 degrees north the midday sun at the December solstice reaches about 22 degrees above the horizon, and that is the best it manages all day. Any slope facing north and pitched steeper than that takes no direct sun on that date, at noon or at any other hour, and a river bluff clears 22 degrees without trying. So does the shaded wall of the trench. The index published for the metro is measured on open ground, and a good deal of this city in December is not open ground.

Six months later the same terrain hides nothing, because the noon sun stands around 68 degrees and shadows are short. The local distortion therefore runs entirely through the half of the year when the number is low anyway, and vanishes in the half when it is worth checking.

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.

Minneapolis, MN 9 mi · 45.0°N peak 2.7 Madison, WI 224 mi · 43.1°N peak 4.5 Des Moines, IA 232 mi · 41.6°N peak 6.2

What does St. Paul’s UV index mean today?

0.6 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today St. Paul 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 St. Paul 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 St. Paul

What is the UV index in St. Paul 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 St. Paul 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.

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

Updated