Central European Time

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Time zones of Europe: blue Western European Time / Western European Summer Time (UTC+0 / UTC+1). red Central European Time / Central European Summer Time (UTC+1 / UTC+2). green Eastern European Time / Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+2 / UTC+3). khaki Moscow Time / Moscow Summer Time (UTC+3 / UTC+4). Light colours indicate countries not observing daylight saving
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Time zones of Europe:
blue Western European Time / Western European Summer Time (UTC+0 / UTC+1).
red Central European Time / Central European Summer Time (UTC+1 / UTC+2).
green Eastern European Time / Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+2 / UTC+3).
khaki Moscow Time / Moscow Summer Time (UTC+3 / UTC+4).
Light colours indicate countries not observing daylight saving

Central European Time (CET) is one of the names of the time zone that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in most European and some North African countries.

Its time offset is UTC+1 during standard time and UTC+2 during daylight saving time.

Contents

[edit] About its name

Central European Time (or Central Europe Time) used to be also known under other names, such as Middle European Time (today the MET abbreviation should be used to mean Middle Eastern Time) and in past Berlin Time.

[edit] Usage

These countries use Central European Time throughout the year:

The following countries and territories use Central European Time during the winter only, between 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of October and 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March:

Before World War II Lithuania used CET (MET) in years 1920-40. In time of war Germany implemented this time in all occupied territories. In France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg CET was saved. After war Monaco, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar implemented CET.

Ireland and the United Kingdom experimentally adopted CET in years 1968-1971; however, this experiment proved unpopular and short-lived, mainly due to the increased number of road accidents (many involving children walking to school) in the dark winter mornings. Portugal used CET in years 1966-1976 and 1992-96.

[edit] Anomalies

Since political, in addition to purely geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones, it follows that actual time zones do not precisely adhere to meridian lines. The CET (UTC+1) time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, would consist of exactly the area between meridians 7 30' E and 22 30' E. As a result, there are European locales that despite lying in an area with a "physical" UTC+1 time, actually use another time zone (UTC+2 in particular - there are no "physical" UTC+1 areas that employ UTC); contrariwise, there are European areas that have gone for UTC+1, even though their "physical" time zone is UTC (typically), UTC-1 (westernmost Spain), or UTC+2 (e.g. the very easternmost parts of Norway, Poland, and Serbia). Following is a list of such "incongruencies":

[edit] Countries (or parts thereof) west of 7 30' W ("physical" UTC-1) that use UTC+1

[edit] Countries (or parts thereof) between 7 30' W and 7 30' E ("physical" UTC) that use UTC+1

[edit] Countries (or parts thereof) east of 22 30' E ("physical" UTC+2) that use UTC+1

  • The easternmost part of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, including the city of Strumica
  • The absolutely easternmost part of Serbia, in the Pirot District, including the city of Pirot
  • The extreme easternmost tips of Hungary and Slovakia, bordering to the north and south respectively the Ukrainian Transcarpathian Oblast (Zakarpattia Oblast), a bit to the east of Vásárosnamény, Hungary - Uzhhorod, Ukraine (both at 22 18' E) line
  • The easternmost part of Poland, including the cities of Lublin and Białystok
  • The extreme northeast of Sweden, in the Norrbotten province, including the cities of Kalix and Haparanda
  • The northeast of Norway, lying north of Finland, roughly coinciding with the county of Finnmark; for instance Vadsø, the capital of Finnmark, has a longitude of 23 49′ E. Actually, the easternmost town in Norway, Vardø, lies at 30 51′ E, which is so far east, so as to be east even of the central meridian of EET (UTC+2), i.e. east of Istanbul and Alexandria. It is also interesting to note that the Norwegian-Russian border (incl. border passings such as Kirkenes) is the only place where CET (UTC+1) borders Moscow time (UTC+3), resulting in a two (2) hours time change for the passenger crossing that border. More so, there exists a "tri-zone" point (where UTC+1, UTC+2, and UTC+3 meet) at the Norway-Finland-Russia tripoint (look for the town of Nautsi in this map). This is the only "tri-zone" point within Europe. Actually, it is interesting to perform the following mental experiment when looking at this map: Go to the westernmost point of the red area (the Jäniskoski-Niskakoski area); this belongs to Russian jurisdiction, hence the time there is UTC+3. Then, take a northeastern (NE) direction (that is an eastwards direction); you will soon be crossing into Finnish territory, thus moving to the UTC+2 time zone. Continuing in that direction, you will eventually reach the Finland-Norway border and enter Norway, thus passing into the UTC+1 time zone. So, moving in a (north-)easterly direction, you will actually be moving from UTC+3 to UTC+2 to UTC+1!

[edit] Countries (or parts thereof) west of 22 30' E ("physical" UTC+1) that use UTC+2

[edit] Major metropolitan areas

[edit] See also

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