Pacific Time Zone

The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC−8). During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC−7 and is thus based on the mean solar time of the 105th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.

In the United States and Canada, this time zone is generically called the Pacific Time Zone (PT). Specifically, it uses Pacific Standard Time (PST) when observing standard time (late autumn to early spring), and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) when observing daylight saving time (early spring to late autumn). Most of Canada uses daylight saving time. In Mexico, the UTC−8 time zone is known as the Northwest Time Zone, which is synchronized with the U.S. PDT daylight saving schedule.

The largest city in the Pacific Time Zone is Los Angeles; the city's metropolitan area is the largest in the zone.

The zone is two hours ahead of the Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone, one hour ahead of the Alaska Time Zone, one hour behind the Mountain Time Zone,^{[nb 1]} two hours behind the Central Time Zone, and three hours behind the Eastern Time Zone.

Canada

Only one Canadian territory is entirely in the Pacific Time Zone:

• Yukon

One Canadian province and one territory are split between the Pacific Time Zone and the Mountain Time Zone:

• British Columbia – all, except for the Highway 95 corridor: Tumbler Ridge, Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Golden, and Creston
• Northwest Territories – Tungsten

Mexico

In Mexico, the Zona Noroeste, which corresponds to Pacific Time in the United States and Canada, includes:

• Baja California
• Colima – Clarion Island

United States

Two states are fully contained in the Pacific Time Zone:

• California
• Washington

Three states are split between the Pacific Time Zone and the Mountain Time Zone:

• Idaho – Idaho Panhandle
• Nevada – all, except for West Wendover and Jackpot, Mountain City, Owyhee, and Jarbidge near the Idaho border
• Oregon – all, except for the majority of Malheur County

One state is split between the Pacific Time Zone and the Alaska Time Zone:

• Alaska – Hyder

Daylight time

Through 2006, the local time (PST, UTC−8) changed to daylight time (PDT, UTC−7) at 02:00 LST (local standard time) to 03:00 LDT (local daylight time) on the first Sunday in April, and returned at 02:00 LDT to 01:00 LST on the last Sunday in October.

Effective in the U.S. in 2007 as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the local time changes from PST to PDT at 02:00 LST to 03:00 LDT on the second Sunday in March and the time returns at 02:00 LDT to 01:00 LST on the first Sunday in November. The Canadian provinces and territories that use daylight time each adopted these dates between October 2005 and February 2007. In Mexico, beginning in 2010, the portion of the country in this time zone uses the extended dates, as do some other parts. The vast majority of Mexico, however, still uses the old dates.

See also

• Effects of time zones on North American broadcasting

Notes

External links

• The Official NIST US Time
• Official times across Canada
• World time zone map
• U.S. time zone map
• History of U.S. time zones and UTC conversion
• Canada time zone map
• Time zones for major world cities