Calculator for Barcelona

City

Skin type (Fitzpatrick)

Sunscreen

Body part

Hour of day

% Cloud cover

11+

7-day max UV and peak hour

Date	UV max	Peak hour	Cloud
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Recommendations for this city

Mediterranean coast, high UV in summer (8-9). Sea breeze can mask sunburn. Apply extra caution on beaches and in the mountains due to additional UV reflection.

UV guide for Barcelona

Barcelona sits at 41.39 N, 2.17. Its UV index follows a seasonal cycle driven by latitude and mean cloud cover. This page offers real-time data from Open-Meteo and a customisable calculator so you know how long you can stay in the sun without burning.

Mediterranean coast, high UV in summer (8-9). Sea breeze can mask sunburn.

Sunburn occurs when the accumulated UVB dose exceeds your MED (Minimal Erythemal Dose), which depends on your Fitzpatrick skin type. Fair skin (I-II) has very low MED: in Barcelona in summer, type II skin can burn in less than 15 minutes unprotected at solar noon.

Specific recommendations: wear a hat, seek shade during the middle hours, apply SPF 30-50 every 2 hours and check this index before planning outdoor activities. Children, elderly and people with very fair skin or photosensitising medication should be extra careful.

UVA radiation passes through clouds and glass: watch out on overcast days and in cars with closed windows. UV 400 sunglasses are essential to prevent early cataracts and macular degeneration.

UV in Barcelona: latitude, altitude and cloud

Why the sun in Barcelona hits the way it does

The UV index does not depend on heat but on how high the sun stands above the horizon, and that is pure geometry. Barcelona sits at 41.39° of latitude, so at solar noon the sun reaches 72° of elevation in June — its highest point of the year — and drops to 25° in December. The more vertical the ray, the less atmosphere it crosses and the less ultraviolet is filtered out on the way: between those two extremes the midday UV changes by a factor of several times.

Altitude barely counts here: the observatory is at 26 metres and the correction for height is under 1 %. What does count is what surrounds it. Sea water returns between 10 and 25 % of the radiation depending on the angle and the state of the surface, and dry sand around 15 %. Swimming, you take it from above and below at once.

Cloud protects less than it seems

AEMET does not publish the complete series of clear and overcast days for the Barcelona, Port Olímpic observatory, so that figure is left out here rather than invented. What holds anywhere: a thin or broken cloud layer filters far less ultraviolet than visible light, so a whitish sky cuts the feeling of sun without cutting much UV. The sunburns that catch people out are almost always from cloudy days.

Month by month in Barcelona

Solar elevation computed for the 15th of each month at the latitude of Barcelona. Sunshine and cloud: AEMET 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona, Port Olímpic.
Mean	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Solar elevation at noon (°)	27	35	46	58	67	72	70	62	51	39	29	25

How to read this alongside the index above

The figures in this table are geometry and climatology: they say how much sun there can be and how high it climbs, not how much UV there will be today. The calculator’s index does come from today’s forecast, which also accounts for actual ozone and cloud. Read them together: the table explains why the UV in Barcelona is what it is, and the calculator says what today calls for.

One last thing that does not change with the city: 70 % of the daily ultraviolet dose arrives in the four hours around solar noon, which in Spanish summer time is roughly 13:30 to 17:30. Avoiding that window does more than any cream.