Time in Samoa

This article is about time in the Independent State of Samoa. For the time in American Samoa, see Samoa Time Zone.

Samoa uses UTC+13:00 as standard time and UTC+14:00 as daylight saving time, which it observes during summer in the southern hemisphere. In 2011, daylight saving time ended on Saturday 2 April 2011, 04:00 local daylight time and started on Sunday 25 September 2011, 00:00 local standard time.[1] Due to its location in the South Pacific Ocean, Samoa traditionally did not observe daylight saving time. Initially planned for 2009, the introduction of daylight saving time in Samoa was postponed for one year due to the aftermath of the 2009 Samoa tsunami.[2][3]

Being located just west of the International Date Line, Samoa is among the first places on earth to see each new day, along with Tonga, Tokelau and parts of Kiribati.

IANA time zone database

The IANA time zone database in the file zone.tab contains one zone for Samoa, named "Pacific/Apia".

2011 time zone change

Until the end of 2011, Samoa fell east of the International Date Line, observing UTC-11:00 (UTC-10:00 during daylight saving time). This was in line with neighboring American Samoa, which continues to observe UTC-11:00 (Samoa Time Zone) year-round. At the end of Thursday, 29 December 2011, Samoa continued directly to Saturday, 31 December 2011, skipping the entire calendar day of Friday 30 December 2011 and effectively re-drawing the International Date Line.[4] Prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi stated that the change was intended to improve business with New Zealand, Australia, China and other places in Asia.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Current time in Apia, Samoa - daylight savings time 2011 dates, Apia clock.". 24TimeZones.com. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  2. ↑ http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/samoa-dst-plan-2009.html
  3. ↑ http://www.worldtimezone.com/dst_news/dst_news_samoa01.html
  4. ↑ "Samoa to move the International Dateline". Herald Sun.
  5. ↑ "Samoa to change time zones and move forward by a day". Metro.