Most of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

is in the

Central Time Zone The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinate ...

with the exception being the two westernmost counties. * El Paso County * Hudspeth County Northwestern Culberson County near

Guadalupe Mountains National Park Guadalupe Mountains National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains, east of El Paso, Texas. The mountain range includes Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at , and El Capitan used as a landmark by travelers on the ro ...

unofficially observes

Mountain Time Zone The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when standard time ( UTC−07:00) is in effect, and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time ( UTC−06:00). The clo ...

IANA time zone database

The 2 zones for Texas as given by 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 ...

. Columns marked * are from the zone.tab.

Historical

The " Panhandle and

Plains In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands. In ...

" section of Texas is now in the Central Time Zone, but had a two-year period of being in the Mountain Time Zone between 1919 and 1921.A posting to the tzdata-history mailing list provides original documents: http://groups.google.com/group/tzdata-history/browse_thread/thread/5e0d0d24ba438e4c In short: A US government decision in March 1918 announced a change in time zone boundaries. The CT/MT boundary was to run through Texas roughly along the meridian 100w, with a bulge to the west around the towns of Sweatwater, Big Springs and San Angelo, starting January 1, 1919 at 2 am. The local Panhandle and Plains chamber of commerce was not happy in 1919 to be in another time zone than the more populated south-east of the state, and they petitioned a change. A US Congress decision of March 4, 1921, became part of the United States Code as section 265 and moved the Panhandle and Plains area back to CT.

References

{{Time in the United States

Geography of Texas

IANA time zone database

Historical

See also

References