World clock

" Local Time Zone Names Mountain Standard Time or Mountain Daylight Time or just Mountain Time?PunchStock.com To confuse matters more, each time zone can have different local time zone names, usually linked to the geographical name of the country or region. The time zone names may be completely different, even though the UTC offset is the same. For instance in Miami, Florida, is 5 hours behind UTC (UTC-5) and the standard time zone is Eastern Standard Time (EST). In Havana, Cuba, the standard time zone is also UTC-5, but it's called Cuba Standard Time (CST). Military Time Zones There are also 25 military time zones which follow the rule of 1 hour per 15 degrees longitude. These are named according to the NATO phonetic alphabet: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc. and are used in aviation, at sea, and in telecommunications. The reason there are 25 military time zones instead of 24 is that Mike Time Zone (M) and Yankee Time Zone (Y) are the same time, but on either side of the International Date Line. J (Juliet Time Zone) is occasionally used to refer to the observer's local time. Identical Abbreviations Another point that can cause confusion is that some time zone's names in totally different places have exactly the same abbreviation. For example, India Standard Time (IST) and Israel Standard Time (IST) have the same abbreviation, but completely different UTC offsets of UTC+5:30 and UTC+2:00. In many parts of the world, especially in countries with only one time zone, time zone names are not commonly used at all. Time zone names worldwide Hot Political Potato In most countries, the political decision to make adjustments regarding time zones or DST is made for practical reasons, like saving energy, facilitating trade with neighboring areas, or boost tourism. In some cases, time zone borders and DST can be a political tool, most recently in Russia, Ukraine, and North Korea."