What is Central European Time?
You need to keep in mind that this time zone is an identifier for a time offset that is 1 hour ahead of the
UTC time zone.
This time pattern is maintained using highly accurate atomic clocks matched to the Earth's rotation.
In this section, you will learn key facts about this time zone and stay well informed.
The IANA time zone identifier used is Etc/GMT-1.
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Time Offset: UTC+1, UTC+01:00
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Abbreviation: CET, MEZ (Mitteleuropäische Zeit)
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Standard Time Ends: Last Sunday in March, 01:00 UTC (clocks go forward one hour).
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Standard Time Began: Last Sunday in October, 01:00 UTC (clocks went back one hour).
What is Central European Time Zone Right Now?
This time zone is a time offset that adds 1 hour to
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
In the map above we highlight the entire region covered by this time zone.
Its main cities and territories are:
In the map above we highlight the entire region covered by the time zone.
This time offset is also observed during standard time and daylight saving time for various geographic regions.
You need to be very careful finding these time zones that may have different names and abbreviations, but have the same UTC offset:
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British Summer Time (BST)
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Irish Standard Time (IST)
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Middle European Time (MET)
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West Africa Time (WAT)
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Western European Summer Time (WEST)
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Alpha Time Zone (A)
Main Countries
This time zone is used in the following countries:
In Spain this time zone is used throughout the country, except for the Canary Islands.
Current Central European Time with seconds according to the official atomic clock.
