These are the 11 craziest time zone boundaries

The fact that it gets dark earlier in the evening is a problem for some of us. But at least that’s the end of “time zone issues”. In other places it is very different. Because in some time zones people have to deal with sometimes strange excesses on a daily basis.

We’ve put together some “special limits” here.

There used to be no time zones. There wasn’t even a clock. But then, with the development of long-distance travel activities, there was more and more need for “unique time”. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was introduced at 11 a.m. on August 2, 1880, and from now on all places in the British Isles had the same time.

Well, that’s not quite true. Ireland used to have its own time zone, which was 25 minutes and 21 seconds behind GMT. This was withdrawn in 1916. Greenwich Mean Time became the standard. By the way: Greenwich is pronounced «Grenitsch».

Today, the time standard is UTC, Coordinated Universal Time. Based on this, the time zones are calculated worldwide. The GMT is based on the UTC (UTC±0). Other time zones are indicated by GMT/UTC + or – (for example: GMT+1 for Switzerland and GMT+2 for Swiss daylight saving time).

Theoretically, China includes five time zones. However, to promote simplicity and togetherness, “Beijing Time” applies across the country, ie UTC+8. One of the consequences of this is that in Tibet or the Xinjiang region, the sun does not rise until around 10 a.m. in winter. An unofficial time was therefore created there, but it was rejected by the Han Chinese living in the area.

But also internationally, the enormous time zone leads to strange moments. If you cross the border from China to Afghanistan, you have to set the time forward by 3.5 hours. In the border triangle Afghanistan/Pakistan/China you can change the time three times (UTC+4.5, UTC+5, UTC+8). To be fair, however, it must be said that this region is practically uninhabited and the country triangle is on a high peak.

We will stay in the region for a while. Nepal was the only country not to settle for half an hour, but instead set its time at UTC+5:45. This is because the Nepalese Standard Time Meridian is located in Gaurishankhar, a mountain east of Kathmandu. That has been the case since 1986.

If you cross the border from Nepal to China you have to set the clock forward 2:15 hours, if you travel to India you have to set it back 15 minutes.

Except for Nepal, only the Chatham Islands, which belong to New Zealand, have a time zone with a quarter-hour clock. (UTC+12:45).

Kiribati was far east of the date line and was therefore about a day behind Australia. But as Australia developed into the main business partner, this meant that inquiries from Kiribati were sent there on Friday morning, but in Australia it was already Saturday morning and thus weekend.

On January 1, 1995, Kiribati crossed the date line. December 31, 1994 did not exist in Kiribati. Because the island nation extends over many islands, the date line there has a special bulge. Incidentally, Hawaii is on the same longitude meridian and has the same time as Kiribati – just a day later.

By the way: For a similar reason to Kiribati, Samoa also jumped to the “Australian side” in 2011. American Samoa, 70 kilometers to the east, however, remained on the “American side”.

We stay at the date line for a while, but travel further north to the Diomedes Islands. The small group of islands in the Bering Strait is located between Russia and the US. The western island (Big Diomedes Island) belongs to Russia, while the Small Diomedes Island, about four kilometers to the east, belongs to the US. In addition to the nations, the date line also separates the two islands, which are within visual distance of each other.

But they are separated by 21 hours. So if it’s 12 noon (UTC+12) on Monday on the Russian island, the island neighbors on the US side will still enjoy Sunday afternoon (3 p.m., UTC-9).

21 hours time difference is of course not the greatest possible. This is not – as might be expected – 24 hours, but 26.

This difference exists between the Line Islands, which belong to Kiribati (UTC+14, with place names that are as beautiful on the Christmas Islands as Kiritimati, London, Paris, Poland or Banana) and the Baker Islands (UTC-12).

The two islands are just over 2000 kilometers apart (roughly equivalent to Bern – St. Petersburg). But while the clock on the uninhabited Baker Islands is 11 p.m. on Saturday evening, it is already 1 a.m. on the Line Islands on Monday.

The consequence of the maximum time difference of more than 24 hours: Three different calendar days can exist at the same time worldwide.

So if it is 11:30 am (UTC+1) on Saturday here in Switzerland, the clocks in Kiritimati in the Christmas Islands will already show Kiribati on Sunday 12:30 am (UTC+14) and in American Samoa it will still be 11:30 pm (UTC+1) on Friday. 11).

As we have already learned, some countries are too big to be in one time zone. But of course it’s more complicated than that. A time zone border runs through nine US states. For example, in Indiana, 12 of the 92 counties are on Central Time (UTC-6) and the rest are on Eastern Time (UTC-5).

Of the twelve counties, six are located in the northwest and are based on the city of Chicago in the neighboring state of Illinois, the other six are in the southwest around the city of Evansville.

But things get really weird in Arizona. As you can see from the map above, there seem to be two time zones. However, the difference here is only during daylight saving time (DST). As with summer time, the days get longer in the evening. However, Arizona is one of the few states that generally does not apply the DST.

This, in turn, doesn’t apply to the Navajo Nations reservation, an area roughly twice the size of Switzerland that changes the clock every time. But that is not everything. The Hopi reservation exists in the Navajo Nations reservation, which in turn does not apply the DST. And this Hopi reservation has an exclave in the Navajo Nations reservation on the one hand, and it encloses an exclave of the Navajo Nations reservation on the other. It looks like this and is quite complicated in terms of time:

Taking a 4.5-hour drive from Flagstaff via Tuba City, Shongopovi and Winslow back to Flagstaff will require you to turn the clock six times on this journey.

Daylight saving time also complicates life in Australia. Basically, Australia has three time zones: UTC+8, UTC+9:30 and UTC+10. There are also time zones from outside the region, such as Lord Howe Island (UTC+10:30), but we’re focusing on the continental part here.

In the summer, however, two time zones are added. Because three states set daylight saving time. In South Australia this is UTC+10:30, the southeastern states – including the major cities of Melbourne and Sydney – set their clocks to UTC+11. So if you then need to be at Currumbin Beach (Queensland) at 2pm and depart from Tweed Heads (New South Wales) you should leave at 2:45pm and then you should be able to complete the 15 minute journey again at 2pm. . .

It gets interesting further north. The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador actually operates under UTC-4. However, the island of Newfoundland sets the clocks according to UTC 3:30.

But not only the island, but also the easternmost tip of mainland Labrador. L’Anse au Clair and Norman Bay also set their clocks ahead half an hour. And yes, the island of St-Pierre and Miquelon, near Newfoundland, follows UTC-4:30.

This brings us to those countries that are half an hour apart and have a deviation of xx:30 from UTC. Among which: Iran, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Venezuela is no longer in this club. The country turned the clock back half an hour in 2007, but returned to UTC-4 in 2016. All countries are free to choose their time zones. The decision usually has to do with more sunlight in the evenings. India, for example, would save large amounts of electricity thanks to half an hour.

Finally, a small anecdote that these large time differences do not always exist somewhere between two South Sea islands or on any Himalayan peaks and are therefore barely noticeable.

Anyone partying at the legendary Sunset Discotheque (UTC-3) in Chile’s northernmost city, Arica, can cross the border into Peru shortly after New Year’s Eve and reach Tacna in an hour. There the clocks are set back two hours (UTC-5). New Year’s Eve can be celebrated twice. For example with pisco sour.

We have published this article several times around the time change. It is constantly updated.