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The UTC offset is the difference in hours and minutes between
A ''
Time Service Dept., U.S. Naval Observatory
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Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about one second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently use ...
(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 time being described is two hours ahead of UTC (such as in Kigali, Rwanda pprox. 30° E, the UTC offset would be "+02:00", "+0200", or simply "+02".
By convention, every inhabited place in the world has a UTC offset that is a multiple of 15 minutes but the majority of offsets are stated in whole hours. There are many cases where the national standard time uses a time zone that differs from the UTC offset appropriate to its longitude.
Time zones and time offsets
A ''time zone
A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it ...
'' is a geographical region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
in which residents observe the same standard time. Although nominally a new time zone is established every 15 degrees east or west of the prime meridian
A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great ...
(meaning a one hour change in solar time), in practice local geographical or political considerations may vary its application. The most extreme example of this is time in China
The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing Tim ...
, which applies a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about one second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently use ...
), even though China spans five geographical 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 ...
.
The UTC offset (or time offset) is an amount of time subtracted from or added to Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about one second of mean solar time (such as UT1) at 0° longitude (at the IERS Reference Meridian as the currently use ...
(UTC) time to specify the local solar time (which may not be the current civil time
In modern usage, civil time refers to statutory time as designated by civilian authorities. Modern civil time is generally national standard time in a time zone at a fixed offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), possibly adjusted by dayligh ...
, whether it is standard time or 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 ...
).
Daylight saving time
Several regions of the world usedaylight 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 ...
(DST) and the UTC offset during this season is typically obtained by adding one hour to local standard time. Central European Time
Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00.
It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries.
CET ...
UTC+01:00 is replaced by Central European Summer Time
Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...
UTC+02:00, and Pacific Standard Time UTC−08:00 is replaced by Pacific Daylight Time UTC−07:00.
Notable examples
See also
*ISO 8601
ISO 8601 is an international standard covering the worldwide exchange and communication of date and time-related data. It is maintained by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was first published in 1988, w ...
– international standard for representing dates and times.
External links
Time Service Dept., U.S. Naval Observatory
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