Time in Chile is divided into three

time zones Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

. Most of

Continental Chile Continental Chile is the name given to the Chilean territory located on the continental shelf of South America. This term serves to distinguish the South American area from the insular territories, known as Insular Chile, as from the Chilean Anta ...

uses the

time offset The UTC offset is the difference in hours and minutes between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and local solar time, at a particular place. This difference is expressed with respect to UTC and is generally shown in the format , , or . So if the tim ...

UTC−04:00 in winter time and UTC−03:00 in summer time, while the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region uses the time offset UTC-03:00 the whole year. Additionally,

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearl ...

uses the time offset UTC−06:00 in winter time and UTC−05:00 in summer time. Until 2015, Continental Chile used the time offset UTC−04:00 and Easter Island used UTC−06:00 for standard time, with

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

roughly between October and March every year. In January 2015, the Chilean government announced that the entire country would keep the time offset used during daylight saving time permanently. However, the annual time change was reinstated in 2016 after feedback from the public about an increase in truancy during the winter months, complaints about older computers and other electronic devices not using the right time zone, and fruit growers reporting a 15% loss in productivity. Starting in 2016,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

returned to UTC−04:00 for winter time for 3 months. Between 2016 and 2018, this began on the second Sunday of May and ended on the second Sunday of August; from 2019 onward, it will start on the first Sunday of April and end on the first Sunday of September. Since 2017, a new time zone in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region has been implemented, giving two different times in Continental Chile for the first time.

Time zones

: UTC-3 in summer time and UTC-4 in winter time. The winter time starts the first Saturday of April and ends on the first Saturday of September. *

: UTC-5 in summer time and UTC-6 in winter time. It has 2 hours of difference from the Continental time and changes the same days. * Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica: It uses the summer time (UTC-3) the whole year. This time zone has been implemented since 2017.

Current time zone

The official time on the mainland is now UTC−04:00, in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region is UTC−03:00, and on Easter Island is UTC−06:00.

Defunct time zones

Standard time (CLT/EAST)

''Standard time in Chile'' was used in Chile until 2014 (returned 2016). The time zone ''Chile Standard Time (CLT)'' was used on the mainland with the offset UTC−04:00 and ''Easter Island Standard Time (EAST)'' was used on Easter Island with the offset UTC−06:00. On March 1, 1894, the first official time signal operates in Valparaiso at -4 hours, 46 minutes and 34 seconds with respect to

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

, as UTC did not exist. In 1903, another official time was operating in

Coquimbo Coquimbo is a port city, commune and capital of the Elqui Province, located on the Pan-American Highway, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. Coquimbo is situated in a valley south of La Serena, with which it forms Greater La Serena with more than ...

. It was synchronized at -4 hours, 45 minutes 20.7 seconds with respect to GMT. On January 10, 1910, Chile adopted GMT-5 as its official time. On July 1, 1919, time was set as 4 hours 42 minutes 46.3 seconds behind Greenwich.

Summer time (CLST/EASST)

''Summer time in Chile'', also known as ''daylight saving time (DST) in Chile'' was used in Chile from 1968 to 2014 & 2016–present. The time zone ''Chile Summer Time (CLST)'' was used on the mainland with the offset UTC−03:00 and ''Easter Island Summer Time (EASST)'' was used on Easter Island with the offset UTC−05:00. In mainland Chile, time was changed at 24:00 on a Saturday, i.e. at 0:00 on the following Sunday. In Easter Island, time was changed at 22:00 on a Saturday. In 2015, the time offset used in this time zone eventually became the only time zone in Chile. Several exceptions have been decreed to the current rule that began in 1968: * In 1987, the

was extended until Saturday 11 April to accommodate a visit by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

* In 1988, daylight saving time began a week early, to have more light for the Chilean national plebiscite of 5 OctoberPreguntas Frecuentes
Hora Oficial de Chile, page 5, * In 1990, daylight saving time was extended to 17 March, because

Patricio Aylwin Patricio Aylwin Azócar (; 26 November 1918 – 19 April 2016) was a Chilean politician from the Christian Democratic Party, lawyer, author, professor and former senator. He was the first president of Chile after dictator Augusto Pinochet, a ...

began his presidential period on 11 March * In 1990, daylight saving time began at the end of 15 September, in order to save electricity due to unfavorable hydrological conditions * In 1997, standard time began at the end of 29 March, in order to cope with unfavorable hydrological conditionsPreguntas Frecuentes
Hora Oficial de Chile, page 6, * In 1999, daylight saving time was extended to the first Saturday of April, due to a severe drought * In 2008, daylight saving time was extended 3 weeks, due to a severe drought * Due to the 2010 Chile earthquake, daylight saving time ended at 0:00 of 4 April on Continental Chile (20:00 Saturday 3rd on Easter Island) * In 2011, the government decided to end daylight saving on the first Saturday of April. Later this was postponed to the first Saturday of May. * On February 15, 2013, DST was extended to the last Sunday of April and started DST on the 2nd Sunday of September. These dates would be nearly the exact dates of North America's DST, reversed to the southern hemisphere, but the DST end date is 1 week early. * In 2015, the summer time was implemented the whole year. * In 2016, the change to winter time was restored. * In 2017, the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region began to have its own time zone, using summer time (UTC−3) the whole year. * In 2022, the start of Daylight Saving was delayed by 1 week.

IANA time zone database

Zones for Chile as given in the file zone.tab of the

IANA time zone database The tz database is a collaborative compilation of information about the world's time zones, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems. Paul Eggert is its current editor and maintainer, with the organizational backi ...

References

External links

La Hora Oficial de Chile
Servicio Hidrográfico y Oceanográfico de la Armada {{Americas topic, Time in

Time in Chile