Kansas City, MO UV Index Today
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.
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
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.
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?
When is UV strongest in Kansas City today?
Is this measured or modelled?
Related
Updated