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Cincinnati, OH UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-4

What is the UV index in Cincinnati right now?

0.8 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 Cincinnati today?

UV in Cincinnati peaks at 6.7 (High) around 1pm local time (GMT-4). It stays at 6 or above — the high band — for 2 hours, roughly 1pm to 3pm. UV is 3 or above for 6 hours.

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

Cincinnati today, in numbers

Latitude
39.1°N — 62 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
6.7 (High) — 67 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
1pm local (GMT-4)
At or above 6
2 hours, 1pm to 3pm
At or above 3
6 hours, 11am to 5pm

The window from 1pm to 3pm is the practical answer for Cincinnati 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 →

The sun runs late against Eastern clock time

Cincinnati keeps clock time that does not match its sun. The city sits near 84.5 degrees west, close to the western edge of the Eastern zone and roughly nine and a half degrees past the meridian that zone is built on. Every degree is four minutes, so solar noon lands near 1:40 in the afternoon under daylight time and the strongest part of the day falls well after what a clock calls midday. The same offset pushes the other end out: at midsummer the sun here is still up after nine in the evening.

Cloud does the rest, and terrain does none of it. This stretch of the Ohio Valley is among the cloudier parts of the country in the cold months, and that overcast lines up with the weakest sun angle of the year instead of offsetting some of it. The few hundred feet of relief between the hilltops and the river decide a great deal about what people here breathe, and nothing at all about what reaches them from the sun.

Snow reaches Cincinnati most winters and rarely lasts more than a few days. The reflected dose that adds to a northern Plains winter is an occasional event on this stretch of the river, not a season.

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.

Louisville, KY 91 mi · 38.3°N peak 7.1 Indianapolis, IN 99 mi · 39.8°N peak 6.7 Columbus, OH 99 mi · 40.0°N peak 6.3

What does Cincinnati’s UV index mean today?

0.8 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati

What is the UV index in Cincinnati today?

0.8 right now (Low), peaking at 6.7 around 1pm local time. UV stays at 6 or above for 2 hours, from about 1pm to 3pm. This is a modelled value, not a ground measurement.

When is UV strongest in Cincinnati 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.

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

Updated