Map of Eastern Time Zone

Categories: Time in the United States > Time in Mexico > Time in Canada > Time zones

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The Eastern Time Zone (ET or NAEST: North American Eastern Standard Time) 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 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. 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. 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. In Canada, the time changes as it does in the U.S.

Usage

North America

Canada

In Canada

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

Ontario (excluding areas west of Thunder Bay but including Atikokan )
Quebec (excluding far eastern Côte-Nord and the Magdalen Islands )
East-central Nunavut (including part of Melville Peninsula and most of Ellesmere and Baffin Islands, including Iqaluit ; Southampton Island does not observe DST)

United States

In the United States

, 17 states and the District of Columbia

are entirely located within the Eastern Time zone, while another six are split between the Eastern and Central time zones.

These states and Washington, D.C.

observe only 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.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.

These six states are split between Eastern and Central time:

Alabama : The entire state is officially in the Central Time Zone. However, a handful of communities unofficially observe Eastern Time because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area - Phenix City , Smiths Station , Lanett , and Valley .
Florida : All of Florida is in the Eastern Time zone except for the portion of the Florida panhandle west of the Apalachicola River . As the Eastern-Central zone boundary approaches the Gulf of Mexico , it follows the Bay/Gulf county line.
Indiana : All of Indiana observes Eastern Time except for six northwestern counties in the Chicago metropolitan area and six southern counties in the Evansville metropolitan area.
- Until 2006, the portions of Indiana within the Eastern Time Zone observed Eastern Standard Time year-round—except that five counties near Cincinnati and Louisville customarily observed Eastern Daylight Time despite legally being on Eastern Standard Time. See Time in Indiana.
Kentucky : Roughly, the eastern half of the state, including all of metropolitan Louisville is in the Eastern Time Zone and the western half is in the Central Time Zone; however, the boundary is not a neat "north-south" line but runs northwest-southeast.
Michigan : All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four westernmost counties, in the Upper Peninsula along the border with Wisconsin , which observe Central Time - Gogebic , Iron , Dickinson , Menominee . Historically the entire state observed Central Time. When Daylight Saving Time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all but the four counties noted changed to Eastern Time.
Tennessee : The eastern third of Tennessee is in the Eastern Time Zone. The area is roughly but not entirely coextensive with the region formally known as "East Tennessee".

Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de facto official time for all of the United States, since it includes the capital (Washington, D.C.

), the largest city (New York City

), and approximately half the country's population. 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 (for example, one may see "Seattle at Los Angeles" with "10:00 pm" posted as the start time for the game, often without even clarfying the time is 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 although several cable networks have west coast feeds that broadcast primetime programmes 3 hours later from original broadcast so those in the Pacific Time zone can watch it at the same time slot as the eastern time (e.g. a show that airs at 20.00 ET will also air at 20.00 PT on its network's west coast feed).

Mexico

Quintana Roo : this eastern state followed EST for an almost-17-year period (1982 to some time in 1998). [See http://www.diputados.gob.mx/bibliot/publica/inveyana/polisoc/horver/capitulo5.htm. SPANISH]

Central America

The countries that use Eastern Time Zone include:

Panama

Caribbean

The following western Caribbean nations and territories in the Eastern Time Zone are:

The eastern Caribbean islands are in the Atlantic Time Zone (UTC-4), sometimes called Eastern Caribbean Time Zone. This time zone includes the U.S.

Virgin Islands

and Puerto Rico. Atlantic/Eastern Caribbean Time is one hour ahead of Eastern Time.

The Eastern/Atlantic time zone boundary divides the island of Hispaniola, with Haiti on Eastern Time and the Dominican Republic

on Atlantic Time.

Because they are located in the tropics, many Caribbean islands do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Thus, when the mainland United States is on D.S.T., those islands in the Atlantic Time zone are on the same time as Eastern Daylight Time, while those in the Eastern Time zone are on the same time as Central Daylight Time.