UV Index Europe
Current UV index levels for cities across Europe. From Mediterranean sun to Nordic summers — check UV conditions before heading outdoors.
Europe UV summary
UV radiation overview
Europe's UV radiation profile is shaped by its exceptional latitude span, reaching from roughly 35°N in the Mediterranean to above 70°N in the Arctic. Solar radiation reaching the ground falls in proportion to the cosine of the sun's angle from vertical, so high-latitude regions receive markedly weaker UV than the global tropics. Western Europe sits at the same latitudes as parts of Canada and Russia, which keeps annual ambient UV well below tropical levels even in its sunniest countries.
Polar and sub-polar areas of northern Europe receive no insolation at all for parts of winter, so UV exposure effectively disappears for several months. In contrast, Mediterranean summers regularly produce UV index values in the high single digits — comparable to what the WHO and WMO scale describes as conditions typical of tropical or mountainous latitudes. This combination of long dark winters in the north and intense, clear-sky summers in the south is the defining feature of Europe's UV climate.
Cyprus records the region's highest ambient UV at about 3,439 J/m², while Iceland sits near the bottom of the global ranking at 957 J/m². The gap between Europe's south and far north is one of the widest within any single continent.
