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Tulsa, OK UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-5

What is the UV index in Tulsa right now?

1.9 Low

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

Today's peak is 8.2 (Very High) at about 1pm local time.

When is UV strongest in Tulsa today?

UV in Tulsa peaks at 8.2 (Very 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.

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

Tulsa today, in numbers

Latitude
36.1°N — 82 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
8.2 (Very High) — 25 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 Tulsa 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 →

Las Vegas Sun Angle, Gulf Moisture Overhead

Tulsa and Las Vegas sit at almost exactly the same latitude, 36.15 degrees north against 36.17. On any date of the year the sun climbs to the same height over both. Everything that separates their ultraviolet readings happens in the air underneath it.

Tulsa stands around 700 feet above sea level on the Arkansas River at the western edge of the Ozark uplift, in humid air drawn north off the Gulf for most of the warm season. Water vapor and haze take a share of the beam that a desert column lets through, and Las Vegas has about 1,300 feet of additional elevation on top of that, so an ordinary Tulsa summer peak lands below what the identical sun angle delivers over the Mojave.

The daily shape here is set by convection rather than by the clock. Through July and August, Gulf moisture and afternoon heating build cumulus over eastern Oklahoma, and a morning that starts cloudless is often half covered by three in the afternoon. Broken cloud does not simply subtract, though. Bright cumulus edges scatter extra ultraviolet down onto the ground while the sun itself is still unobstructed, which can briefly push a reading above what an entirely clear sky would have given at the same moment.

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.

Oklahoma City, OK 98 mi · 35.5°N peak 8.2 Kansas City, MO 218 mi · 39.1°N peak 7.4 Dallas, TX 237 mi · 32.8°N peak 8.6

What does Tulsa’s UV index mean today?

1.9 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Tulsa also reaches Very 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 Tulsa 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 Tulsa

What is the UV index in Tulsa today?

1.9 right now (Low), peaking at 8.2 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 Tulsa 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.

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

Updated