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5<head><title>How to Read the tz Database</title></head>
6<body>
7<h2>How to Read the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
8Database</a> Source Files</h2>
9<h3>by Bill Seymour</h3>
10<p>This page uses the <code>America/Chicago</code> and
11<code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> zones as examples of how to infer
12times of day from the <a href="tz-link.htm">tz database</a>
13source files. It might be helpful, but not absolutely necessary,
14for the reader to have already downloaded the
15latest release of the database and become familiar with the basic layout
16of the data files. The format is explained in the &ldquo;man
17page&rdquo; for the zic compiler, <code>zic.8.txt</code>, in
18the <code>code</code> subdirectory.</p>
19
20<p>We&rsquo;ll begin by talking about the rules for changing between standard
21and daylight saving time since we&rsquo;ll need that information when we talk
22about the zones.</p>
23
24<p>First, let&rsquo;s consider the special daylight saving time rules
25for Chicago (from the <code>northamerica</code> file in
26the <code>data</code> subdirectory):</p>
27
28<table border="1">
29<tr>
30  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
31</tr>
32<tr>
33  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
34<pre>
35#Rule NAME    FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON      AT   SAVE LETTER
36Rule  Chicago 1920 only  -   Jun 13      2:00 1:00 D
37Rule  Chicago 1920 1921  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
38Rule  Chicago 1921 only  -   Mar lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
39Rule  Chicago 1922 1966  -   Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
40Rule  Chicago 1922 1954  -   Sep lastSun 2:00 0    S
41Rule  Chicago 1955 1966  -   Oct lastSun 2:00 0    S
42</pre>
43  </td></tr></table></td>
44</tr>
45<tr>
46  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
47</tr>
48<tr>
49  <th>From</th>
50  <th>To</th>
51  <th colspan="2">On</th>
52  <th>At</th>
53  <th>Action</th>
54</tr>
55<tr align="center">
56  <td colspan="2">1920 only</td>
57  <td colspan="2">June 13<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
58  <td rowspan="6">02:00 local</td>
59  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
60</tr>
61<tr align="center">
62  <td>1920</td>
63  <td>1921</td>
64  <td rowspan="5">last Sunday</td>
65  <td>in October</td>
66  <td>return to standard time</td>
67</tr>
68<tr align="center">
69  <td colspan="2">1921 only</td>
70  <td>in March</td>
71  <td rowspan="2">go to daylight saving time</td>
72</tr>
73<tr align="center">
74  <td rowspan="2">1922</td>
75  <td>1966</td>
76  <td>in April</td>
77</tr>
78<tr align="center">
79  <td>1954</td>
80  <td>in September</td>
81  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
82</tr>
83<tr align="center">
84  <td>1955</td>
85  <td>1966</td>
86  <td>in October</td>
87</tr>
88</table>
89
90<p>We&rsquo;ll basically just ignore the <code>TYPE</code> column.
91In the 2007j release, the most recent as of this writing, the
92<code>TYPE</code> column never contains anything but a hyphen,
93a kind of null value. (From the description in <code>zic.8.txt</code>,
94this appears to be a mechanism for removing years from a set
95in some localizable way. It&rsquo;s used in the file, <code>pacificnew</code>,
96to determine whether a given year will have a US presidential election;
97but everything related to that use is commented out.)
98
99<p>The <code>SAVE</code> column contains the wall clock offset from
100local standard time.
101This is usually either zero for standard time or one hour for daylight
102saving time; but there&rsquo;s no reason, in principle, why it can&rsquo;t
103take on other values.
104
105<p>The <code>LETTER</code> (sometimes called <code>LETTER/S</code>)
106column can contain a variable
107part of the usual abbreviation of the time zone&rsquo;s name, or it can just
108be a hyphen if there&rsquo;s no variable part. For example, the abbreviation
109used in the central time zone will be either &ldquo;CST&rdquo; or
110&ldquo;CDT&rdquo;. The variable part is &lsquo;S&rsquo; or &lsquo;D&rsquo;;
111and, sure enough, that&rsquo;s just what we find in
112the <code>LETTER</code> column
113in the <code>Chicago</code> rules. More about this when we talk about
114&ldquo;Zone&rdquo; lines.
115
116<p>One important thing to notice is that &ldquo;Rule&rdquo; lines
117want at once to be both <i>transitions</i> and <i>steady states</i>:
118<ul>
119<li>On the one hand, they represent transitions between standard and
120daylight saving time; and any number of Rule lines can be in effect
121during a given period (which will always be a non-empty set of
122contiguous calendar years).</li>
123<li>On the other hand, the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code>
124columns contain state that exists between transitions. More about this
125when we talk about the US rules.</li>
126</ul>
127
128<p>In the example above, the transition to daylight saving time
129happened on the 13<small><sup>th</sup></small> of June in 1920, and on
130the last Sunday in March in 1921; but the return to standard time
131happened on the last Sunday in October in both of those
132years. Similarly, the rule for changing to daylight saving time was
133the same from 1922 to 1966; but the rule for returning to standard
134time changed in 1955. Got it?</p>
135
136<p>OK, now for the somewhat more interesting &ldquo;US&rdquo; rules:</p>
137
138<table border="1">
139<tr>
140  <th colspan="6">From the Source File</th>
141</tr>
142<tr>
143  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
144<pre>
145#Rule NAME FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON        AT   SAVE LETTER/S
146Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Mar lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
147Rule  US   1918 1919  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
148Rule  US   1942 only  -   Feb 9        2:00  1:00 W # War
149Rule  US   1945 only  -   Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
150Rule  US   1945 only  -   Sep 30       2:00  0    S
151Rule  US   1967 2006  -   Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
152Rule  US   1967 1973  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
153Rule  US   1974 only  -   Jan 6        2:00  1:00 D
154Rule  US   1975 only  -   Feb 23       2:00  1:00 D
155Rule  US   1976 1986  -   Apr lastSun  2:00  1:00 D
156Rule  US   1987 2006  -   Apr Sun&gt;=1   2:00  1:00 D
157Rule  US   2007 max   -   Mar Sun&gt;=8   2:00  1:00 D
158Rule  US   2007 max   -   Nov Sun&gt;=1   2:00  0    S
159</pre>
160  </td></tr></table></td>
161</tr>
162<tr>
163  <th colspan="6">Reformatted a Bit</th>
164</tr>
165<tr>
166  <th>From</th>
167  <th>To</th>
168  <th colspan="2">On</th>
169  <th>At</th>
170  <th>Action</th>
171</tr>
172<tr align="center">
173  <td rowspan="2">1918</td>
174  <td rowspan="2">1919</td>
175  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
176  <td>in March</td>
177  <td rowspan="3">02:00 local</td>
178  <td>go to daylight saving time</td>
179</tr>
180<tr align="center">
181  <td>in October</td>
182  <td>return to standard time</td>
183</tr>
184<tr align="center">
185  <td colspan="2">1942 only</td>
186  <td colspan="2">February 9<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
187  <td>go to &ldquo;war time&rdquo;</td>
188</tr>
189<tr align="center">
190  <td colspan="2" rowspan="2">1945 only</td>
191  <td colspan="2">August 14<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
192  <td>23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a></td>
193  <td>
194    rename &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace<br>time;&rdquo;
195    clocks don&rsquo;t change
196  </td>
197</tr>
198<tr align="center">
199  <td colspan="2">September 30<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
200  <td rowspan="9">02:00 local</td>
201  <td rowspan="2">return to standard time</td>
202</tr>
203<tr align="center">
204  <td rowspan="2">1967</td>
205  <td>2006</td>
206  <td rowspan="2">last Sunday</td>
207  <td>in October</td>
208</tr>
209<tr align="center">
210  <td>1973</td>
211  <td>in April</td>
212  <td rowspan="6">go to daylight saving time</td>
213</tr>
214<tr align="center">
215  <td colspan="2">1974 only</td>
216  <td colspan="2">January 6<small><sup>th</sup></small></td>
217</tr>
218<tr align="center">
219  <td colspan="2">1975 only</td>
220  <td colspan="2">February 23<small><sup>rd</sup></small></td>
221</tr>
222<tr align="center">
223  <td>1976</td>
224  <td>1986</td>
225  <td>last Sunday</td>
226  <td rowspan="2">in April</td>
227</tr>
228<tr align="center">
229  <td>1987</td>
230  <td>2006</td>
231  <td>first Sunday</td>
232</tr>
233<tr align="center">
234  <td rowspan="2">2007</td>
235  <td rowspan="2">present</td>
236  <td colspan="2">second Sunday in March</td>
237</tr>
238<tr align="center">
239  <td colspan="2">first Sunday in November</td>
240  <td>return to standard time</td>
241</tr>
242</table>
243
244<p>There are two interesting things to note here.</p>
245
246<p>First, the time that something happens (in the <code>AT</code>
247column) is not necessarily the local wall clock time. The time can be
248suffixed with &lsquo;s&rsquo; (for &ldquo;standard&rdquo;) to mean
249local standard time (different from wall clock time when observing
250daylight saving time); or it can be suffixed with &lsquo;g&rsquo;,
251&lsquo;u&rsquo;, or &lsquo;z&rsquo;, all three of which mean the
252standard time at the
253<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">prime meridian</a>.
254&lsquo;g&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
255href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time">GMT</a>&rdquo;;
256&lsquo;u&rsquo; stands for &ldquo;<a
257href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>&rdquo; or &ldquo;<a
258href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>&rdquo;
259(whichever was official at the time); &lsquo;z&rsquo; stands for the
260<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_time">nautical time zone</a>
261Z (a.k.a. &ldquo;Zulu&rdquo; which, in turn, stands for &lsquo;Z&rsquo;).
262The time can also be suffixed with &lsquo;w&rsquo; meaning &ldquo;wall
263clock time;&rdquo; but it usually isn&rsquo;t because that&rsquo;s the
264default.</p>
265
266<p>Second, the day in the <code>ON</code> column, in addition to
267&ldquo;<code>lastSun</code>&rdquo; or a particular day of the month,
268can have the form, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=</code><i>x</i>&rdquo; or
269&ldquo;<code>Sun&lt;=</code><i>x</i>,&rdquo; where <i>x</i> is a day
270of the month. For example, &ldquo;<code>Sun&gt;=8</code>&rdquo; means
271&ldquo;the first Sunday on or after the eighth of the month,&rdquo; in
272other words, the second Sunday of the month. Furthermore, although
273there are no examples above, the weekday needn&rsquo;t be
274&ldquo;<code>Sun</code>&rdquo; in either form, but can be the usual
275three-character English abbreviation for any day of the week.</p>
276
277<p>And the US rules give us more examples of a couple of things
278already mentioned:</p>
279
280<ul>
281<li>The rules for changing to and from daylight saving time are
282actually <i>different sets</i> of rules; and the two sets can change
283independently. Consider, for example, that the rule for the return to
284standard time stayed the same from 1967 to 2006; but the rule for the
285transition to daylight saving time changed several times in the same
286period.  There can also be periods, 1946 to 1966 for example, when no
287rule from this group is in effect, and so either no transition
288happened in those years, or some other rule is in effect (perhaps a
289state or other more local rule).</li>
290
291<li>The <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> columns
292contain <i>steady state</i>, not transitions. Consider, for example,
293the transition from &ldquo;war time&rdquo; to &ldquo;peace time&rdquo;
294that happened on August 14, 1945. The &ldquo;1:00&rdquo; in
295the <code>SAVE</code> column is <i>not</i> an instruction to advance
296the clock an hour. It means that clocks should <i>be</i> one hour
297ahead of standard time, which they already are because of the previous
298rule, so there should be no change.</li>
299
300</ul>
301
302<p>OK, now let&rsquo;s look at a Zone record:</p>
303
304<table border="1">
305<tr>
306  <th colspan="5">From the Source File</th>
307</tr>
308<tr>
309  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
310<pre>
311#Zone       NAME      GMTOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
312Zone  America/Chicago -5:50:36 -       LMT  1883 Nov 18 12:09:24
313                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1920
314                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1936 Mar  1  2:00
315                      -5:00    -       EST  1936 Nov 15  2:00
316                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1942
317                      -6:00    US      C%sT 1946
318                      -6:00    Chicago C%sT 1967
319                      -6:00    US      C%sT
320</pre>
321  </td></tr></table></td>
322</tr>
323<tr>
324  <th colspan="5">Columns Renamed</th>
325</tr>
326<tr>
327  <th rowspan="2">Standard Offset<br>
328    from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian">Prime
329    Meridian</a></th>
330  <th rowspan="2">Daylight<br>Saving Time</th>
331  <th rowspan="2">Abbreviation(s)</th>
332  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
333</tr>
334<tr>
335  <th>Date</th>
336  <th>Time</th>
337</tr>
338<tr align="center">
339  <td>&minus;5:50:36</td>
340  <td>not observed</td>
341  <td>LMT</td>
342  <td>1883-11-18</td>
343  <td>12:09:24</td>
344</tr>
345<tr align="center">
346  <td rowspan="2">&minus;6:00:00</td>
347  <td>US rules</td>
348  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
349  <td>1920-01-01</td>
350  <td>00:00:00</td>
351</tr>
352<tr align="center">
353  <td>Chicago rules</td>
354  <td>1936-03-01</td>
355  <td rowspan="2">02:00:00</td>
356</tr>
357<tr align="center">
358  <td>&minus;5:00:00</td>
359  <td>not observed</td>
360  <td>EST</td>
361  <td>1936-11-15</td>
362</tr>
363<tr align="center">
364  <td rowspan="4">&minus;6:00:00</td>
365  <td>Chicago rules</td>
366  <td>CST or CDT</td>
367  <td>1942-01-01</td>
368  <td rowspan="3">00:00:00</td>
369</tr>
370<tr align="center">
371  <td>US rules</td>
372  <td>CST, CWT or CPT</td>
373  <td>1946-01-01</td>
374</tr>
375<tr align="center">
376  <td>Chicago rules</td>
377  <td rowspan="2">CST or CDT</td>
378  <td>1967-01-01</td>
379</tr>
380<tr align="center">
381  <td>US rules</td>
382  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
383</tr>
384</table>
385
386<p>There are a couple of interesting differences between Zones and Rules.</p>
387
388<p>First, and somewhat trivially, whereas Rules are considered to
389contain one or more records, a Zone is considered to be a single
390record with zero or more <i>continuation lines</i>. Thus, the keyword,
391&ldquo;<code>Zone</code>,&rdquo; and the zone name are not
392repeated. The last line is the one without anything in
393the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column.</p>
394
395<p>Second, and more fundamentally, each line of a Zone represents a
396steady state, not a transition between states. The state exists from
397the date and time in the previous line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code>
398column up to the date and time in the current
399line&rsquo;s <code>[UNTIL]</code> column. In other words, the date and
400time in the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column is the instant that separates
401this state from the next. Where that would be ambiguous because
402we&rsquo;re setting our clocks back, the <code>[UNTIL]</code> column
403specifies the first occurrence of the instant. The state specified by
404the last line, the one without anything in the <code>[UNTIL]</code>
405column, continues to the present.</p>
406
407<p>The first line typically specifies the mean solar time observed
408before the introduction of standard time. Since there&rsquo;s no line before
409that, it has no beginning. <code>8-) </code> For some places near the <a
410href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line">International
411Date Line</a>, the first <i>two</i> lines will show solar times
412differing by 24 hours; this corresponds to a movement of the Date
413Line.  For example:</p>
414
415<pre>
416#Zone NAME          GMTOFF   RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
417Zone America/Juneau 15:02:19 -     LMT    1867 Oct 18
418                    -8:57:41 -     LMT    ...
419</pre>
420
421<p>When Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867, the Date Line moved
422from the Alaska/Canada border to the Bering Strait; and the time in
423Alaska was then 24 hours earlier than it had
424been. <code>&lt;aside&gt;</code>(6 October in the Julian calendar,
425which Russia was still using then for religious reasons, was followed
426by <i>a second instance of the same day with a different name</i>, 18
427October in the Gregorian calendar. Isn&rsquo;t civil time
428wonderful? <code>8-)</code>)<code>&lt;/aside&gt;</code></p>
429
430<p>The abbreviation, &ldquo;LMT&rdquo; stands for &ldquo;local mean
431time&rdquo;, which is an invention of
432the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
433database</a> and was probably never actually used during the
434period. Furthermore, the value is almost certainly wrong except in the
435archetypal place after which the zone is named. (The tz database
436usually doesn&rsquo;t provide a separate Zone record for places where
437nothing significant happened after 1970.)</p>
438
439<p>The <code>RULES</code> column tells us whether daylight saving time is being observed:
440<ul>
441<li>A hyphen, a kind of null value, means that we have not set our
442clocks ahead of standard time.</li>
443
444<li>An amount of time (usually but not necessarily &ldquo;1:00&rdquo;
445meaning one hour) means that we have set our clocks ahead by that
446amount.</li>
447
448<li>Some alphabetic string means that we <i>might have</i> set our
449clocks ahead; and we need to check the rule the name of which is the
450given alphabetic string.</li>
451</ul>
452
453<p>An example of a specific amount of time is:</p>
454<pre>
455#Zone NAME            GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
456Zone Pacific/Honolulu ...                 1933 Apr 30 2:00
457                      -10:30 1:00  HDT    1933 May 21 2:00
458                      ...
459</pre>
460
461<p>Hawaii tried daylight saving time for three weeks in 1933 and
462decided they didn&rsquo;t like it. <code>8-) </code>Note that
463the <code>GMTOFF</code> column always contains the standard time
464offset, so the wall clock time during this period was GMT &minus;
46510:30 + 1:00 = GMT &minus; 9:30.</p>
466
467<p>The <code>FORMAT</code> column specifies the usual abbreviation of
468the time zone name. It can have one of three forms:</p>
469<ul>
470
471<li>a string of three or more characters that are either ASCII alphanumerics,
472&ldquo;<code>+</code>&rdquo;, or &ldquo;<code>-</code>&rdquo;,
473in which case that&rsquo;s the abbreviation</li>
474
475<li>a pair of strings separated by a slash
476(&lsquo;<code>/</code>&rsquo;), in which case the first string is the
477abbreviation for the standard time name and the second string is the
478abbreviation for the daylight saving time name</li>
479
480<li>a string containing &ldquo;<code>%s</code>,&rdquo; in which case
481the &ldquo;<code>%s</code>&rdquo; will be replaced by the text in the
482appropriate Rule&rsquo;s <code>LETTER</code> column</li>
483</ul>
484
485<p>The last two make sense only if there&rsquo;s a named rule in effect.</p>
486
487<p>An example of a slash is:</p>
488<pre>
489#Zone NAME          GMTOFF RULES FORMAT  [UNTIL]
490Zone  Europe/London ...                  1996
491                    0:00   EU    GMT/BST
492</pre>
493
494<p>The current time in the UK is called either Greenwich mean time or
495British summer time.</p>
496
497<p>One wrinkle, not fully explained in <code>zic.8.txt</code>, is what
498happens when switching to a named rule. To what values should
499the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data be initialized?</p>
500
501<ul>
502<li>If at least one transition has happened, use
503the <code>SAVE</code> and <code>LETTER</code> data from the most
504recent.</li>
505
506<li>If switching to a named rule before any transition has happened,
507assume standard time (<code>SAVE</code> zero), and use
508the <code>LETTER</code> data from the earliest transition with
509a <code>SAVE</code> of zero.
510
511</ul>
512
513<p>And three last things about the <code>FORMAT</code> column:</p>
514<ul>
515
516<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database">tz
517database</a> gives abbreviations for time zone names in <i>popular
518usage</i>, which is not necessarily &ldquo;correct&rdquo; by law. For
519example, the last line in
520<code>Zone</code> <code>Pacific/Honolulu</code> (shown below) gives
521&ldquo;HST&rdquo; for &ldquo;Hawaii standard time&rdquo; even though the
522<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode15/usc_sec_15_00000263----000-.html">legal</a>
523name for that time zone is &ldquo;Hawaii-Aleutian standard time.&rdquo;
524This author has read that there are also some places in Australia where
525popular time zone names differ from the legal ones.
526
527<li>No attempt is made to <a
528href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_and_localization">localize</a>
529the abbreviations. They are intended to be the values returned through the
530<code>"%Z"</code> format specifier to
531<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)">C</a>&rsquo;s
532<a href="http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/strftime.html"><code>strftime</code></a>
533function in the
534<a href="http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemnet/use/info/libc/libc_19.html#SEC324">&ldquo;C&rdquo; locale</a>.
535
536<li>If there is no generally-accepted abbreviation for a time zone,
537a numeric offset is used instead, e.g., <code>+07</code> for 7 hours
538ahead of Greenwich. By convention, <code>-00</code> is used in a
539zone while uninhabited, where the offset is zero but in some sense
540the true offset is undefined.
541</ul>
542
543<p>As a final example, here&rsquo;s the complete history for Hawaii:</p>
544
545<table border="1">
546<tr>
547  <th colspan="6">Relevant Excerpts from the US Rules</th>
548</tr>
549<tr>
550  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
551<pre>
552#Rule NAME FROM TO   TYPE IN  ON      AT     SAVE LETTER/S
553Rule  US   1918 1919 -    Oct lastSun  2:00  0    S
554Rule  US   1942 only -    Feb  9       2:00  1:00 W # War
555Rule  US   1945 only -    Aug 14      23:00u 1:00 P # Peace
556Rule  US   1945 only -    Sep 30       2:00  0    S
557</pre>
558  </td></tr></table></td>
559</tr>
560<tr>
561  <th colspan="6">The Zone Record</th>
562</tr>
563<tr>
564  <td colspan="6" align="center"><table><tr><td>
565<pre>
566#Zone NAME            GMTOFF    RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
567Zone Pacific/Honolulu -10:31:26 -     LMT    1900 Jan  1 12:00
568                      -10:30    -     HST    1933 Apr 30  2:00
569                      -10:30    1:00  HDT    1933 May 21  2:00
570                      -10:30    US    H%sT   1947 Jun  8  2:00
571                      -10:00    -     HST
572</pre>
573  </td></tr></table></td>
574</tr>
575<tr>
576  <th colspan="6">What We Infer</th>
577</tr>
578<tr>
579  <th rowspan="2">Wall-Clock<br>Offset from<br>Prime Meridian</th>
580  <th rowspan="2">Adjust<br>Clocks</th>
581  <th colspan="2">Time Zone</th>
582  <th colspan="2">Ending at Local Time</th>
583</tr>
584<tr>
585  <th>Abbrv.</th>
586  <th>Name</th>
587  <th>Date</th>
588  <th>Time</th>
589</tr>
590<tr align="center">
591  <td>&minus;10:31:26</td>
592  <td>&mdash;</td>
593  <td>LMT</td>
594  <td>local mean time</td>
595  <td>1900-01-01</td>
596  <td>12:00</td>
597</tr>
598<tr align="center">
599  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
600  <td>+0:01:26</td>
601  <td>HST</td>
602  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
603  <td>1933-04-30</td>
604  <td rowspan="3">02:00</td>
605</tr>
606<tr align="center">
607  <td>&minus;9:30</td>
608  <td>+1:00</td>
609  <td>HDT</td>
610  <td>Hawaii daylight time</td>
611  <td>1933-05-21</td>
612</tr>
613<tr align="center">
614  <td>&minus;10:30&sup1;</td>
615  <td>&minus;1:00&sup1;</td>
616  <td>HST&sup1;</td>
617  <td>Hawaii standard time</td>
618  <td>1942-02-09</td>
619</tr>
620<tr align="center">
621  <td rowspan="2">&minus;9:30</td>
622  <td>+1:00</td>
623  <td>HWT</td>
624  <td>Hawaii war time</td>
625  <td>1945-08-14</td>
626  <td>13:30&sup2;</td>
627</tr>
628<tr align="center">
629  <td>0</td>
630  <td>HPT</td>
631  <td>Hawaii peace time</td>
632  <td>1945-09-30</td>
633  <td rowspan="2">02:00</td>
634</tr>
635<tr align="center">
636  <td>&minus;10:30</td>
637  <td>&minus;1:00</td>
638  <td rowspan="2">HST</td>
639  <td rowspan="2">Hawaii standard time</td>
640  <td>1947-06-08</td>
641</tr>
642<tr align="center">
643  <td>&minus;10:00&sup3;</td>
644  <td>+0:30&sup3;</td>
645  <td colspan="2">&mdash;</td>
646</tr>
647<tr>
648  <td colspan="6">
649    &sup1;Switching to US rules&hellip;most recent transition (in 1919) was to standard time
650  </td>
651</tr>
652<tr>
653  <td colspan="6">
654    &sup2;23:00 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>
655    + (&minus;9:30) = 13:30 local
656  </td>
657</tr>
658<tr>
659  <td colspan="6">
660    &sup3;Since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601">1947&ndash;06&ndash;08T12:30Z</a>,
661    the civil time in Hawaii has been
662    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time">UT</a>/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">UTC</a>
663    &minus; 10:00 year-round.
664  </td>
665</tr>
666</table>
667
668<p>There will be a short quiz later. <code>8-)</code></p>
669
670<hr>
671<address>
672This web page is in the public domain, so clarified as of
6732015-10-20 by Bill Seymour.
674<br>
675All suggestions and corrections will be welcome; all flames will be amusing.
676Mail to was at pobox dot com.
677</address>
678</body>
679</html>
680