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Virginia Beach, VA UV Index Today

Modelled for · GMT-4

What is the UV index in Virginia Beach right now?

0.3 Low

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

Today's peak is 6.6 (High) at about 1pm local time.

When is UV strongest in Virginia Beach today?

UV in Virginia Beach peaks at 6.6 (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.

Virginia Beach today, in numbers

Latitude
36.9°N — 78 of 121 from the north
Today's peak
6.6 (High) — 69 of 121 nationally
Peak arrives
1pm local (GMT-4)
At or above 6
2 hours, 1pm to 3pm
At or above 3
6 hours, 10am to 4pm

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

Two shorelines meeting at a right angle

Virginia Beach has two coasts set at right angles, and the sun crosses them differently. The Atlantic oceanfront faces due east. The Chesapeake Bay shore, running west from Cape Henry past First Landing, faces roughly north. In midsummer the sun rises north of east and sets north of west, so a north-facing bay beach has open water in front of it at both ends of the day and the sun behind it, over the land, at noon. The oceanfront reverses that: sun over the water all morning, over the city all afternoon.

The reflected share is modest but it runs the whole day. The World Health Organization puts dry sand at about 15 percent of incident ultraviolet returned upward and sea foam nearer 25, against under 10 percent for grass, soil and open water. It matters because a beach day is a long day, not because any single hour is unusual. Altitude adds nothing here, Cape Henry being at sea level, and the horizon is open in every direction, so no terrain shortens the day at either end.

Late spring is the season that misleads. The ocean off Virginia is still cold from winter while the air above it is not, and low cloud can sit along the shoreline while ground a few miles inland is clear and hot.

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.

Washington, DC 153 mi · 38.9°N peak 6.3 Raleigh, NC 166 mi · 35.8°N peak 7.3 Baltimore, MD 172 mi · 39.3°N peak 6.2

What does Virginia Beach’s UV index mean today?

0.3 is Low. EPA describes low UV as needing no protection for most people. Today Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach

What is the UV index in Virginia Beach today?

0.3 right now (Low), peaking at 6.6 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 Virginia Beach 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.

Air quality across the USVirginia Beach has no air-quality page — we publish one where searches for a metro clear a floor UV across the USWhere Virginia Beach sits against every metro we track

Updated