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Eastern Time Zone

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"Eastern Standard Time" redirects here. For other uses, see Eastern Standard Time (disambiguation).
"Eastern Daylight Time" redirects here. For other uses, see Eastern Daylight Time (disambiguation).
File:UnionSquareAtomicClock.JPG
Metronome, a public art installation showing the time in New York City

The Eastern Time Zone (ET) of the Western Hemisphere falls mostly along the east coast of North America and the west coast of South America. Its time offset is -5 hrs GMT or UTC-5 during standard time and UTC-4 during daylight saving time. The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 75th degree meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.

In the United States and Canada, this time zone is generally called Eastern Time (ET). Specifically, it is Eastern Standard Time (EST) when observing standard time (Winter), and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) when observing daylight saving time (Summer). The 1966 Uniform Time Act in the USA meant that EDT was instituted on the last Sunday in April, starting in 1966, throughout most of the USA.[1] EST would be re-instituted on the last Sunday in October. The act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of EDT as of 1987.[1] The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the U.S. beginning in 2007. The local time changes at 02:00 EST to 03:00 EDT on the second Sunday in March and returns at 02:00 EDT to 01:00 EST on the first Sunday in November[1]. In Canada, the time changes as it does in the U.S.[2]

Usage

North America

Canada

Main article: Time in Canada

In Canada, the following provinces and territories are part of the Eastern Time Zone:

United States

Main article: Time in the United States

In the United States, the following states (or federal district, in the case of the District of Columbia) are part of the Eastern Time Zone in their entirety:

The exact specification for the location of time zones and the dividing line between zones is set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations at 49 CFR 71.[3]

North American Eastern Time Zone (shown in the furthest right yellow)

Parts of several other states use Eastern Time as well:

  • nearly all of Florida except for the part of the panhandle west of the Apalachicola River. Approaching the Gulf of Mexico, the line jumps west to the Bay/Gulf county line.
  • 80 of Indiana's 92 Counties (six in the Evansville metropolitan area and six in the Chicago metropolitan area observe Central Time)
  • all of Kentucky from the Louisville metropolitan area eastward
  • all of Michigan except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin (Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, Menominee)
  • the eastern third of Tennessee, almost but not precisely coterminous with the region legally designated as East Tennessee
  • some towns in eastern Alabama, including Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley, observe Eastern Time, although they are officially in the Central Time Zone. This is primarily because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia media market.[4]
  • Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de-facto official time for all of the United States. National media organizations will often report when events happened or are scheduled to happen in Eastern Time even if they occurred in another time zone, and TV schedules are also almost always posted in Eastern Time. Major professional sports leagues also post all game times in Eastern time, even if both teams are from the same time zone, outside of Eastern Time. For example a game time between two teams from Pacific Time Zone will still be posted in Eastern time. Most cable channels advertise their times for their shows in Eastern time, leaving residents in the other time zones to figure out what time it is in their time zone for themselves.

Mexico

Main article: Time in Mexico
  • Quintana Roo: this eastern state formerly followed EST for a brief period in the 1990s

Central America

The countries that use Eastern Time Zone include:

Caribbean

The countries that use Eastern Time Zone include:

Not all Caribbean countries observe daylight saving time. Most Eastern Caribbean states are in the UTC-4 (Eastern Caribbean Time Zone), which is known in North America as the Atlantic Time Zone and is the equivalent of EDT and one hour ahead of EST.

South America

In South America this time zone is observed in:

Major metropolitan areas

See also List of places in the UTC-5 timezone

See also

Sources

References

  1. ^ a b c Prerau, David (2006). "Early adoption and U.S. Law" (HTML). Daylight Saving Time. Web Exhibit. Retrieved 2007-04-23. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Law, Gwillim (2007-09-21). "United States Time Zones" (HTML). {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ The specification for the Eastern Time Zone is set forth at 49 CFR 71.4, and is listed in Text and pdf formats.
    The boundary between Eastern and Central is set forth at 49 CFR 71.5, and is listed in text and pdf formats.
  4. ^ McDearman, Brian (2006-08-13). "Parts of Eastern Alabama split between 2 time zones". The Decatur Daily. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
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