North America Time Zone Map

The “time zone map of North America” query, answered: the US and Canada across their six zones plus Mexico, which abolished daylight saving in 2022. All city clocks tick from your device.

Pacific · PST/PDT11:08 AMUTC−8

Your time11:38 PMSAT, OCT 31UTC+5:30

Pacific timePacific11:08 AMSAT, OCT 31UTC-7

Mountain timeMountain12:08 PMSAT, OCT 31UTC-6

Central timeCentral1:08 PMSAT, OCT 31UTC-5

Eastern timeEastern2:08 PMSAT, OCT 31UTC-4

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Zones in this view

Zone	IANA	Standard	Daylight	Abbr
Pacific	America/Los_Angeles	UTC−8	UTC−7 (PDT)	PST/PDT
Mountain	America/Denver	UTC−7	UTC−6 (MDT)	MST/MDT
Central	America/Chicago	UTC−6	UTC−5 (CDT)	CST/CDT
Eastern	America/New_York	UTC−5	UTC−4 (EDT)	EST/EDT
Mexico	America/Mexico_City	UTC−6	— (no DST)	CST

Good to know

The US gets a dedicated US time zone map with state boundaries; Canada and Mexico have their own pages in this cluster.

Planning cross-border calls: because most of Canada uses the same DST dates as the US, most US–Canada hour gaps are constant year-round (e.g., New York to Toronto); Saskatchewan and Yukon, which don’t change clocks, are the exceptions. The exception is Mexico: since the 2022 DST abolition, US–Mexico City gaps shift by a season. For any specific pair, the time converter computes the exact offset on the day you’re scheduling.

Where the offsets come from

Every offset on this map is counted from Greenwich. Five dates in how the world agreed on that.

Before 1883

Sun time

Every town set its clocks by the sun overhead, so noon in Boston came about twelve minutes before noon in New York, and railroads juggled dozens of local times.

A weathered stone sundial with Roman numerals and an iron gnomon — A sundial on the porch of St Giles’ Church, Chesterton, England.

November 18, 1883

Railroad time

U.S. and Canadian railroads switched to standard zones an hour apart, set from Greenwich. Many towns reset their clocks the same day, remembered as “the day of two noons.”

A gold railroad pocket watch with a white dial, lying on its chain — A railroad pocket watch made for the Plant System, a railroad of the Southeast.

1884

Greenwich

Delegates at the International Meridian Conference in Washington chose the Greenwich meridian as longitude zero — the line every UTC offset on this site is counted from.

A red time ball on its mast above the octagonal turret of the Royal Observatory — The time ball on the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, dropped at 1 p.m. as a public time signal since 1833.

1918 and 1966

Time by law

The Standard Time Act made the zones federal law in 1918. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 set common daylight-saving rules and let a state opt out, as Arizona and Hawaii do.

The open back of a railroad-grade pocket watch, showing its jewelled movement — The movement of a Hamilton railroad-grade pocket watch, about 1929.

2026

Daylight saving

Since 2007 clocks spring forward on the second Sunday of March and fall back on the first Sunday of November: March 8 and November 1 this year.

A large 24-hour clock face set into a red brick wall beneath a sign reading Royal Observatory Greenwich — The Shepherd Gate Clock at Greenwich, which shows Greenwich Mean Time on a 24-hour dial.

Frequently asked questions

How many time zones does North America have?

The U.S. uses six (Hawaii–Aleutian through Eastern), Canada six (Pacific through Newfoundland), and Mexico four. Together they span from UTC−10 in Hawaii to UTC−3:30 in Newfoundland, plus Greenland further east.

Does Mexico observe daylight saving time?

Most of Mexico stopped observing DST in 2022 and is on CST (UTC−6) year-round; border municipalities such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Matamoros still switch on the U.S. dates.

How far apart are New York and Mexico City?

New York (Eastern) is 1–2 hours ahead of Mexico City (Central) in winter and summer respectively, because New York observes DST while Mexico (except some border cities) no longer does.

Sources: offsets and daylight saving rules from theIANA time zone database; zone shapes from Timezone Boundary Builder. See Data Sources for versions and limitations.