The Atlantic Time Zone is a geographical region that keeps standard time--called Atlantic Standard Time (AST)--by subtracting four hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), resulting in UTC-4; during part of the year some parts of it observe daylight saving time by instead subtracting only three hours (UTC-3). The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 60th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.
In Canada, the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island reckon time specifically as an offset of 4 hours from Greenwich Mean time (GMT-4). Small portions of Quebec (eastern Côte-Nord and the Magdalen Islands) are also part of the Atlantic Standard Time Zone. Officially, the entirety of Newfoundland and Labrador observes Newfoundland Standard Time, but in practice most of Labrador uses the Atlantic Standard Time Zone.
No portion of the continental United States currently uses Atlantic Time; however the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands do use Atlantic Standard Time. A number of New England states are considering a regional year-round change to Atlantic Standard Time, even though only a small portion of Maine lies to the east of the 67.5°W theoretical extent of this zone. Florida is also considering a similar change; in both cases any changes would need to be approved by the United States Department of Transportation and the United States Congress.
Those portions of the Atlantic Time Zone that participate in daylight saving time do so as Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT), which has one hour added to make it only three hours behind GMT (UTC-3).
Video Atlantic Time Zone
Areas covered
- Antigua and Barbuda (No DST)
- Barbados (No DST)
- Brazil
- Amazonas (except southwestern portion), Rondônia, Roraima (No DST)
- Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul
- Bolivia (No DST)
- Canada, in the following areas:
- Nova Scotia
- New Brunswick
- Prince Edward Island
- Most of Labrador
- Magdalen Islands, Quebec
- Côte-Nord (east of the 63rd meridian), Quebec
- Chile (except Magallanes region and Antarctic territory)
- Dominica (No DST)
- Dominican Republic (No DST)
- France and French overseas collectivities, in the following areas:
- Guadeloupe (No DST)
- Martinique (No DST)
- Saint-Barthélemy (No DST)
- Saint-Martin (No DST)
- Greenland, in the following area:
- Thule Air Base
- Grenada (No DST)
- Guyana (No DST)
- Netherlands and Dutch special municipalities, in the following areas:
- Aruba (No DST)
- Bonaire (No DST)
- Curaçao (No DST)
- Saba (No DST)
- Sint Eustatius (No DST)
- Sint Maarten (No DST)
- Paraguay
- Saint Kitts and Nevis (No DST)
- Saint Lucia (No DST)
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (No DST)
- Trinidad and Tobago (No DST)
- United Kingdom (British Overseas Territories), in the following areas:
- Anguilla (No DST)
- Bermuda
- British Virgin Islands (No DST)
- Montserrat (No DST)
- Turks and Caicos Islands (No DST)
- United States, in the following areas:
- Puerto Rico (No DST)
- United States Virgin Islands (No DST)
- Venezuela (No DST)
Maps Atlantic Time Zone
U.S. states considering changing to Atlantic Time
A Massachusetts commission concluded in 2017 that the benefits of changing to Atlantic Standard Time would outweigh the disadvantages, provided that a majority of north-eastern states made the same change. In May 2017, the Maine Senate approved a change to Atlantic Time, on the condition there would be a referendum, and that Massachusetts and New Hampshire decided to make the same switch. Also in 2017, the New Hampshire House of Representatives approved a bill in favour of a regional change, but this was voted down by the state's Senate.. Similar bills have been put forward in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
In Florida, two bills were approved in January 2018 by House and Senate committees, to move most of the state permanently to Atlantic Standard Time (with the panhandle moving to year-round Eastern Standard Time).
See also
- Daylight saving time in the Americas
References
External links
- World time zone map
- History of U.S. time zones and UTC conversion dead link
- Canada time zone map
- Time zones for major world cities
- Official times across Canada
- The official U.S. time for the Atlantic Time Zone (no DST) dead link
Source of article : Wikipedia
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