5 min read · Time
The United States spans six main time zones, plus a few more for its territories. Most states sit in one zone, but more than a dozen are split, and two states skip daylight saving time entirely.
The six main zones
Eastern Time (ET): UTC−5 in winter (EST), UTC−4 in summer (EDT). New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Detroit.
Central Time (CT): UTC−6 / UTC−5. Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Nashville.
Mountain Time (MT): UTC−7 / UTC−6. Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Boise. Phoenix is on MST all year.
Pacific Time (PT): UTC−8 / UTC−7. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland.
Alaska Time (AKT): UTC−9 / UTC−8. Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks.
Hawaii–Aleutian Time (HST): UTC−10. Hawaii stays on this all year; the western Aleutian Islands use it with daylight saving.
US territories add Atlantic Time (Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, UTC−4 all year), Chamorro Time (Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, UTC+10), and Samoa Time (American Samoa, UTC−11).
Daylight saving time in the US
Clocks spring forward one hour at 2:00 AM on the second Sunday in March and fall back at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday in November. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not change their clocks. The Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona does observe daylight saving, so in summer it is an hour ahead of the rest of the state.
Because Arizona stays on UTC−7 all year, it has the same time as California in summer and the same time as Colorado in winter.
States split between two time zones
Florida: Eastern, except the western Panhandle (Pensacola, Panama City), which is Central.
Indiana: Eastern, except counties in the northwest near Chicago and the southwest near Evansville, which are Central.
Kentucky and Tennessee: the eastern part is Eastern (Louisville, Knoxville) and the western part is Central (Bowling Green, Nashville, Memphis).
Michigan: Eastern, except four Upper Peninsula counties bordering Wisconsin, which are Central.
Texas: Central, except El Paso and Hudspeth counties in the far west, which are Mountain.
Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota: mostly Central, with western areas on Mountain Time (Rapid City in South Dakota, for example).
Idaho: Mountain in the south (Boise), Pacific in the northern panhandle (Coeur d’Alene). Oregon is Pacific except most of Malheur County on the Idaho border, which is Mountain.
Alaska: Alaska Time, except the western Aleutian Islands on Hawaii–Aleutian Time.
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