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Eugene, OR UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-7

What is the UV index in Eugene right now?

4 Moderate

EPA suggests shade around midday, a hat and sunglasses.

Today's peak is 5.3 (Moderate) at about 1pm local time.

When is UV strongest in Eugene today?

UV in Eugene peaks at 5.3 (Moderate) around 1pm local time (GMT-7). It does not reach the high band at any hour today. UV is 3 or above for 4 hours.

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

Eugene today, in numbers

Latitude
44.0°N — 16 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
5.3 (Moderate) — 102 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
1pm local (GMT-7)
At or above 6
not today
At or above 3
4 hours, 12pm to 4pm

Eugene never reaches the high band today; the midday hours still warrant a hat. 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 valley year split into overcast and clear halves

Eugene’s UV curve divides more sharply than its latitude alone explains. December, the cloudiest month of its year, is overcast or broken about 76 percent of the time. The Pacific storm track parks a low deck over the southern Willamette Valley for stretches of days at a time, and the Coast Range between the city and an ocean about 50 miles west does nothing to break it up.

Then the pattern flips. The valley’s summer dry season leaves July and August largely clear — by August the sky is clear or close to it about 79 percent of the time — and the index climbs to the top of its range for the latitude. The distance between Eugene’s two halves is far greater than the change in solar elevation across those months would produce on its own.

Boise is the comparison that isolates it. The two cities are less than half a degree apart in latitude, so the sun does the same thing over both on the same date. Eugene stands at 426 feet at the wet southern end of a valley and takes about 41 inches of rain a year. Boise stands at 2,704 feet in cool semi-arid country and takes roughly 12. Same solar input, a third of the water, and two annual curves that barely resemble each other — Boise’s summer runs clear by default, Eugene’s has to wait for the rain to stop.

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.

Portland, OR 104 mi · 45.5°N peak 3.8 Seattle, WA 249 mi · 47.6°N peak 3.3 Boise, ID 345 mi · 43.6°N peak 5.9

What does Eugene’s UV index mean today?

4 is Moderate. EPA suggests shade around midday, a hat and sunglasses. Today Eugene also reaches Moderate at its peak .

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 Eugene 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 Eugene

What is the UV index in Eugene today?

4 right now (Moderate), peaking at 5.3 around 1pm local time. It does not reach the high band today. This is a modelled value, not a ground measurement.

When is UV strongest in Eugene today?

Around 1pm local time (GMT-7), 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.

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

Updated