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Columbus, OH UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-4

What is the UV index in Columbus right now?

0.7 Low

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

Today's peak is 6.3 (High) at about 1pm local time.

When is UV strongest in Columbus today?

UV in Columbus peaks at 6.3 (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.

Columbus today, in numbers

Latitude
40.0°N — 53 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
6.3 (High) — 72 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 Columbus 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 Cloud Season Timed to the Lowest Sun

Central Ohio’s ultraviolet year is decided by cloud, and by when the cloud shows up. The grey stretch here runs from late autumn into early spring, fed by moisture drawn up the Ohio Valley ahead of frontal systems, and it lands on exactly the weeks when the noon sun is at its lowest. The two reductions compound instead of trading off, which is why the winter floor here is flatter and longer than latitude alone would predict.

Not much offsets it. Columbus stands around 900 feet above sea level, which is too little altitude to move a clear-sky peak by more than a couple of percent. Snow rarely holds on the ground more than a few days either, so the reflected component that lifts readings in the snowbelt counties northeast of here is an occasional event in Franklin County rather than a feature of the season.

What Columbus does get is the clear December day. The cloud deck Lake Erie manufactures over Cleveland through early winter mostly stops short of here, about 125 miles south of the lakeshore, so the local record swings between bright and shut down from one week to the next rather than settling into a single overcast regime.

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.

Cincinnati, OH 99 mi · 39.1°N peak 6.7 Cleveland, OH 126 mi · 41.5°N peak 5.5 Pittsburgh, PA 162 mi · 40.4°N peak 6

What does Columbus’s UV index mean today?

0.7 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Columbus 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 Columbus 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 Columbus

What is the UV index in Columbus today?

0.7 right now (Low), peaking at 6.3 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 Columbus 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.

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

Updated