What is Pacific Standard Time?
You need to keep in mind that this time zone is an identifier for a time offset that is 8 hours behind 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+8.
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Time Offset: UTC-8, UTC-08:00
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Abbreviation: PST Time, PT Time, Pacific Time
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Standard Time Ends: 2nd Sunday in March, 01:00 UTC (clocks go forward one hour).
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Standard Time Began: 1st Sunday in November, 01:00 UTC (clocks went back one hour).
What is Pacific Standard Time Zone?
In the United States and Canada, this time zone is generically called the PST Time Zone.
This time zone is a time offset that subtracts 8 hours from
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
In the map above we highlight the entire region covered by this time zone.
Its main cities and territories are:
The largest city in this time zone is Los Angeles, whose metropolitan area is also the largest in the time zone.
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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Alaska Daylight Time (AKDT)
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Clipperton Island Standard Time (CIST)
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Pacific Time (PT)
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Pitcairn Standard Time (PST)
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Uniform Time Zone (U)
Pacific Standard Time Zone Countries
This time zone is used in the following countries:
The PST time zone is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico.
In Canada, this time zone is present in the province of
British Columbia (except for the Highway 95 corridor in the southeast, Tumbler Ridge, Fort St. John, and Dawson Creek in the northeast).
In Mexico, this time zone is present in the state of Baja California.
In the USA, this time zone is present in the states of
Alaska (Hyder),
California,
Idaho (Idaho Panhandle),
Nevada (except for West Wendover),
Oregon (except for the majority of Malheur County) and
Washington.