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Dallas, TX UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-5

What is the UV index in Dallas right now?

2 Low

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

Today's peak is 8.6 (Very High) at about 1pm local time.

When is UV strongest in Dallas today?

UV in Dallas peaks at 8.6 (Very High) around 1pm local time (GMT-5). It stays at 6 or above — the high band — for 4 hours, roughly 12pm to 4pm. UV is 3 or above for 7 hours.

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

Dallas today, in numbers

Latitude
32.8°N — 103 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
8.6 (Very High) — 16 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
1pm local (GMT-5)
At or above 6
4 hours, 12pm to 4pm
At or above 3
7 hours, 10am to 5pm

The window from 12pm to 4pm is the practical answer for Dallas 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 clearest month arrives after the solstice

Terrain does nothing for ultraviolet around Dallas. The city sits under 500 feet on the Blackland Prairie with an open horizon in every direction, so nothing is clipped from the ends of the day and no altitude is added to the middle of it. What shapes the year here is cloud, and cloud does not follow the sun.

Rainfall at Love Field peaks twice, 4.57 inches in May and 4.79 in October, with July the driest month at 1.71. The clear stretch falls between the two wet ones. NOAA’s sunshine record for Dallas, which runs from 1965 to 1973, puts July at 74 percent of possible sunshine, the highest figure of the year, against 57 percent in April and 58 in May. Sun angle peaks in the third week of June. The skies most likely to be cloudless do not arrive until several weeks after that.

The mismatch runs the other way in fall. September still holds 62 percent of possible sunshine with the sun already well down from its June height, so early autumn delivers more clear sky than its angle would suggest and late spring delivers less. Two things that look like one seasonal curve are running on separate schedules.

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.

Fort Worth, TX 30 mi · 32.7°N peak 8.7 Austin, TX 182 mi · 30.3°N peak 8.7 Oklahoma City, OK 190 mi · 35.5°N peak 8.2

What does Dallas’s UV index mean today?

2 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Dallas 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 Dallas 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 Dallas

What is the UV index in Dallas today?

2 right now (Low), peaking at 8.6 around 1pm local time. UV stays at 6 or above for 4 hours, from about 12pm to 4pm. This is a modelled value, not a ground measurement.

When is UV strongest in Dallas 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.

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

Updated