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Omaha, NE UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-5

What is the UV index in Omaha right now?

1.7 Low

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

Today's peak is 6.7 (High) at about 1pm local time.

When is UV strongest in Omaha today?

UV in Omaha peaks at 6.7 (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 6 hours.

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

Omaha today, in numbers

Latitude
41.3°N — 39 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
6.7 (High) — 64 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
1pm local (GMT-5)
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 Omaha 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 →

Plains storms arrive after the peak

Summer cloud in Omaha keeps unusual hours. The central Plains run a nocturnal thunderstorm maximum: the low-level jet carries moisture north overnight, storm complexes organize in the evening upwind in Nebraska and Kansas, and they cross the Missouri Valley in the small hours. Where the Southeast gets its convective interruption in mid-afternoon, sitting on top of the highest sun of the day, Omaha often gets it while the sun is down, and the afternoon that follows is clear.

Nothing in the local landscape modifies the beam much either. There is no marine layer, no lake-effect deck, no mountain wall to shade a morning. The Missouri River trench along the city’s eastern edge is a few hundred feet deep and miles wide, so no part of the metro loses sky to it; the bluffs on each bank shade their own faces and nothing beyond.

That leaves latitude doing the work. At 41.3°N the June noon sun stands about 72 degrees up, which is the same geometry Chicago and Cleveland receive. What differs among the three is everything the atmosphere does with it, and Omaha’s version is continental rather than lacustrine. The winter sky here, at the same low sun angle, is open far more often than the winter sky over the eastern Great Lakes, where a stratus deck can hold for a week.

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.

Des Moines, IA 123 mi · 41.6°N peak 6.2 Kansas City, MO 166 mi · 39.1°N peak 7.4 Minneapolis, MN 290 mi · 45.0°N peak 2.7

What does Omaha’s UV index mean today?

1.7 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Omaha 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 Omaha 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 Omaha

What is the UV index in Omaha today?

1.7 right now (Low), peaking at 6.7 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 Omaha 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.

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

Updated