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Charlotte, NC UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-4

What is the UV index in Charlotte right now?

0.6 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 Charlotte today?

UV in Charlotte peaks at 7.4 (High) around 1pm local time (GMT-4). It stays at 6 or above — the high band — for 3 hours, roughly 12pm to 3pm. UV is 3 or above for 7 hours.

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

Charlotte today, in numbers

Latitude
35.2°N — 87 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
7.4 (High) — 45 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
1pm local (GMT-4)
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 Charlotte 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 →

Albuquerque's sun angle at Piedmont elevation

Charlotte and Albuquerque sit at effectively the same latitude, 35.2 degrees north against 35.1. The noon sun climbs to the same height above both places on the same date, about 78 degrees at the June solstice, close enough to overhead that midday shadows are short. What separates them is everything below that angle. Albuquerque stands above 5,000 feet in dry air; Charlotte’s Piedmont upland is about 750 feet, and on the usual estimate of 8 to 10 percent more ultraviolet per 1,000 meters that is a couple of percent at most, against something over ten for Albuquerque.

The strong season is long. The noon sun stays above 60 degrees from about the second week of April until the first days of September, close to five months during which a cloudless day here sits near the top of Charlotte’s annual range rather than partway up it.

Humidity is the part people expect to feel and mostly cannot. Water vapor absorbs very little in the ultraviolet band. What pulls the number down on a muggy Piedmont afternoon is the cloud and the haze that the moisture goes on to produce, not the moisture itself, which is why the gap between a genuinely clear July afternoon here and the same hour over the high desert is narrower than the difference in climate would suggest.

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.

Columbia, SC 86 mi · 34.0°N peak 7.6 Raleigh, NC 129 mi · 35.8°N peak 7.3 Charleston, SC 177 mi · 32.8°N peak 7.4

What does Charlotte’s UV index mean today?

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

What is the UV index in Charlotte today?

0.6 right now (Low), peaking at 7.4 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 Charlotte today?

Around 1pm local time (GMT-4), 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.

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

Updated