It’s sometimes confusing to think that several countries around the world can share the time zone, but a simple way of understanding it is this: time zones are defined by degrees East or West rather than degrees South or North. During summer, the UK is in the BST (British Standard Time) time zone. In other words, the country that invented GMT is not in GMT time all year round. In fact, even the United Kingdom is observing Daylight Saving Time during the summer months. Some countries are observing Daylight Saving time, so they are in the GMT+1 time zone during the warm months of the year. However, this does not mean that all countries in the GMT time zone have the same hour. In other words, Greenwich Mean Time has no UTC offset. For several centuries, GMT was used as both the time standard and a time zone, but it’s not the same as UTC: nowadays, GMT is firmly considered a time zone, and UTC is a time standard. At the center of GMT is the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, which sits on the Greenwich Meridian, or longitude zero. Greenwich Mean Time, abbreviated GMT, is a time zone that covers parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica. However, you’ve probably also noticed the same time zones referred to as GMT -5 or GMT+5, and it’s equally correct… or is it? If UTC is a time standard, and GMT is a time zone, why the confusion, and why is UTC and GMT used interchangeably? Let’s take a closer look at GMT to figure it out.

As an example, Eastern Standard Time (New York Time) is UTC-5, meaning it’s five hours behind UTC, whereas time in Central Asia will be at UTC+5 – that is, five hours ahead. The UTC standard monitors atomic time and is always at the “zero” hour anything West of UTC will have a minus offset, and anything East of it will have a positive offset (that’s why you hear time being “behind” or “ahead” when you’re looking at different time zones around the world). Each of these slices is a time zone, and each is coordinated using the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) standard. This happened in the late nineteenth century when a Scottish-Canadian engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming proposed dividing the Earth into 24 slices of 15 degrees each. Midday in Hawaii will occur at a different time than in Moscow precisely because of the rotation of the Earth, so to make sense of time around the world and to calculate what time is it where, time zones were introduced. You know that most countries around the world have their own time zone, but you’re not sure why? There’s a simple explanation: Earth rotates by 15 degrees every hour, and that means that noon hits different places of the planet at different times. Ready to get your time right? Let’s dig right in: What Are Time Zones Exactly? And if you’re here for some fascinating time zone trivia, be sure to read the entire article – we’ve listed some fun time zone facts at the bottom of the page. To clear it up, let’s talk about time zones, UTC, UTC offset, and the GMT time zone specifically: after all, time is precious, and understanding time zones can save you a lot of stress and hassle if you work or communicate with people around the world. Curiously enough, the history of using GMT and UTC is intertwined, and it’s no wonder it’s still causing confusion. Why? While both terms are used to define the “zero” hour on which the time zone calculations around the world are based, there is one big difference between GMT and UTC – and that is, one is a time zone and the other is a time standard. However, you’ve probably also heard of UTC, and often, GMT and UTC are confused. Like most people, you’ve probably heard of GMT, or the Greenwhich Mean Time, and you know it’s used to refer to a time zone.

Gmt 1 time zone