UV Index 🇦🇴Angola

Angola stretches across tropical and subtropical latitudes from roughly 4.4°S in the Cabinda enclave to about 18.0°S on the Namibian border, fronting the South Atlantic for more than 1,600 km. A wide central plateau rises to about 1,000–1,500 m, with the Bié highlands climbing higher still, while narrow coastal lowlands and the Cunene basin lie below. The sun passes near the zenith for much of the year, so direct overhead irradiance is intense across most of the territory.

Two regional features shape Angolan UV in unusual ways. The cool Benguela Current flows northward along the southwest coast, chilling surface waters off Namibe and Lobito and feeding a persistent deck of marine stratus and low cloud that attenuates noontime UV near the shore, even under clear skies inland. The central plateau works in the opposite direction: thinner air at 1,300–1,800 m and frequent clear dry-season days at Huambo and Lubango raise effective UV. Far to the north, the Cabinda exclave sits almost on the equator, where humid Congo-basin air and afternoon convective cloud dominate the UV regime.

Angola sits at #39 of 191 in the WHO's global ambient-UV ranking with about 5,287 J/m² of average daily UV, around the 80th percentile worldwide.