Central European Time

Time zones of Europe:
blue Western European Time (UTC+0)
Western European Summer Time (UTC+1)
red Central European Time (UTC+1)
Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
yellow Eastern European Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
green Moscow Time (UTC+3)
Moscow Summer Time (UTC+4)
Light colours indicate countries that do not observe summer time: Algeria, Iceland and Morocco

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 normally UTC+1. During daylight saving time, Central European Summer Time (CEST) is used instead (UTC+2). The current time offset is UTC+Expression error: Unexpected < operator.

Contents

Usage

Central European Time usage in Europe

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 the years 1920–40. During the war Germany implemented this time in all occupied territories. In France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg CET was kept. After the war Monaco, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar implemented CET.

Ireland and the United Kingdom experimentally adopted CET in the years 1968–71; 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 the years 1966–76 and 1992–96.

Central European Time usage in Africa

These African countries use Central European Time (see West Africa Time) throughout the year:

Namibia uses UTC+1 between March and October and in the rest of the year observes daylight saving time (UTC+2)

Anomalies

Color Legal time vs local mean time
0 h ± 30 m
1 h ± 30 m ahead
2 h ± 30 m ahead
3 h ± 30 m ahead
Tzdiff-Europe-summer.png

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′ W 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 "incongruences":

Gibraltar maintained UTC+1 all year until the opening of the land frontier with Spain in 1982 when it followed its neighbour and introduced CEST.

Areas that use UTC+1

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 7°30′ W ("physical" UTC-1) that use UTC+1

Countries (or parts thereof) between 7°30′ W and 7°30′ E ("physical" UTC) that use UTC+1

Countries (or parts thereof) east of 22°30′ E ("physical" UTC+2) that use UTC+1

Areas geographically located within UTC+1 longitudes

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 22°30′ E ("physical" UTC+1) that use UTC+2

Major metropolitan areas

See also

References