The Central Time Zone is in North America and observes standard time by subtracting six hours from UTC during standard time (UTC−06) and five hours during daylight saving time (UTC−05). The clock time in this zone, composed almost totally of a strip of territory in North America, is based on the mean solar time of the 90th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.
In the United States and Canada, this time zone is generically called Central Time (CT), while in Mexico is called Tiempo del Centro. Specifically, it is Central Standard Time (CST) when observing standard time (winter), and Central Daylight Time (CDT) when observing daylight saving (summer). In Mexico, daylight saving time is known as Horario de Verano ("Summer Time"), no matter what time zone.
The zone is two hours ahead of the Pacific Time Zone, one hour ahead of the Mountain Time Zone, and one hour behind the Eastern Time Zone.
Regions using Central Standard Time[]
Canada[]
The Canadian province that observes Central Time in its entirety:
The Canadian provinces and territories that observe Central Time in part with another time zone (other time zone):
- Nunavut (Eastern) most of Kivalliq Region and part of Qikiqtaaluk Region
- Ontario (Eastern) northwestern part
- Saskatchewan (Mountain) nearly all Central
United States[]
The states of the United States that observe Central Time in their entirety:
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The states of the United States that observe Central Time only in part with another time zone:
Part in Mountain Time
Part in Eastern Time |
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.[1]
Mexico[]
Most of Mexico belongs to the Central Time Zone, with the six northwestern-most states being the exception: Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Sinaloa, and Sonora follow UTC−7, while Baja California follows UTC−8.
The states of Mexico that observe Central Time in their entirety:
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The states of the Mexico that observe Central Time only in part with another time zone (other time zone).
- Nayarit just the Bahia de Banderas municipality uses the Central time zone.
Central Daylight Time[]
Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time (CDT) and is UTC−5. Saskatchewan, Sonora and Galápagos do not observe the change, remaining on Standard Time year round. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in the time change is that geographically, most of the province should be placed in the Mountain Time Zone. To avoid this, they have moved onto "permanent" daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone. The only exception is the region immediately surrounding the Saskatchewan side of the biprovincial city of Lloydminster, which has chosen to use Mountain Time with DST, synchronizing its clocks with those of Alberta.
In some areas, starting in 2007, the local time changes from CST to CDT at 02:00 LST to 03:00 LDT on the second Sunday in March and returns at 02:00 LDT to 01:00 LST on the first Sunday in November. Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes DST from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.
Alphabetical list of cities and metropolitan areas[]
- Acapulco, Guerrero
- Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes
- Austin, Texas
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Bismarck, North Dakota
- Chicago, Illinois
- Cuernavaca, Morelos
- Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota/Minnesota
- Green Bay, Wisconsin
- Guadalajara, Jalisco
- Houma-Bayou-Cane-Thibodaux, Louisiana
- Houston, Texas
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas
- Lafayette, Louisiana
- León, Guanajuato
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Mérida, Yucatán
- Mexico City
- Midland/Odessa, Texas
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
- Mobile, Alabama
- Monterrey, Nuevo León
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Murfreesboro, Tennessee
- Nashville, Tennessee
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Pensacola, Florida
- Puebla, Puebla
- Quad Cities, Iowa/Illinois
- Regina, Saskatchewan
- Reynosa, Tamaulipas
- St. Louis, Missouri
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
- Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro
- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Springfield, Missouri
- Tampico, Tamaulipas
- Toluca, México
- Torreón, Coahuila
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Wichita, Kansas
- Winnipeg, Manitoba
Template:North American time zones
See also[]
- Effects of time on North American broadcasting
References[]
- ^ The specification for the Central Time Zone is set forth at 49 CFR 71.6, 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.The boundary between Central and Mountain is set forth at 49 CFR 71.7, and is listed in text and pdf formats.
Sources[]
- 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
- The official U.S. time for the Central Time Zone
- Official times across Canada
- US time zones
This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Central Time Zone (North America). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License. |