About UV Index Checker
Hi, I'm Joshua Bartlett
I've worked in digital content for more than eight years — writing blogs, producing YouTube videos, running social media — and I've built and managed close to two dozen websites along the way. UV Index Checker is one of them, and it's the one I run personally. You can find me on LinkedIn.
Why This Site Exists
The idea came from a beach vacation with my family. I noticed my teenage daughters checking one number over and over on their phones — not the temperature, the UV index. They were timing it, comparing hours, planning their beach time around it. As a kid, I never once thought about UV; if I checked anything, it was whether it would be hot. For their generation, the UV index is a daily-life number.
When I got home, I started building this site — partly for fun, partly to see if I could. It turned out that finding a clean, fast answer to "what's the UV index right now, and what will it be at 2 PM?" was harder than it should be. Weather apps bury it. So this site does one thing: it answers that question quickly, for any US city, with the context you need to act on it.
What This Site Is (and Isn't)
UV Index Checker is a data tool. It shows you the live UV index, an hourly forecast for today and tomorrow, sun times, and estimated safe exposure times by skin type — for your location or any of the 70+ US cities we cover with dedicated pages.
It is not medical advice. I'm a content and web professional, not a dermatologist. The sun-safety guidance on this site follows published recommendations from organizations like the World Health Organization, the EPA's SunSafety program, and the Skin Cancer Foundation. For personal medical questions — especially if you have a history of skin conditions or take medications that increase sun sensitivity — talk to a healthcare provider.
Where the Data Comes From
Every UV value on this site comes from the OpenUV API, which derives real-time UV levels from satellite ozone and cloud data. Values refresh throughout the day (we cache them for up to 30 minutes). Burn-time estimates are based on the Fitzpatrick skin phototype scale, and surface reflection adjustments follow WHO figures. The full details — including what the numbers can and can't tell you — are on our Data & Methodology page.
Site History
UV Index Checker launched in April 2025 with a handful of city pages and a live lookup tool. Since then it has grown to cover more than 70 US cities with dedicated pages, hourly and next-day forecasts, safe exposure estimates, sun timelines, and state-by-state directories — and it keeps growing.
Get in Touch
Questions, corrections, suggestions, or partnership ideas? I read everything sent to [email protected].