Time zone in Europe equal to UTC
Time in Europe :▉ ▉ ▉ ▉ Pale hues: Standard time observed all year▉ ▉ ▉ Dark hues:Daylight saving time Western European Time (WET ,UTC+00:00 ) is atime zone covering parts of westernEurope and consists of countries usingUTC+00:00 (also known asGreenwich Mean Time , abbreviated GMT).[ 1] [ 2] European Union along withCentral European Time andEastern European Time .[ 3] [ 2]
The following Western European countries and regions use UTC+00:00 in winter months:
Portugal , since 1912 with pauses (exceptAzores ,UTC−01:00 )[ 4] United Kingdom andCrown Dependencies , since 1847 inEngland ,Scotland ,Wales , theChannel Islands , and theIsle of Man , and since 1916 inNorthern Ireland , with pauses[ 5] [ 6] [ 7] Ireland , since 1916,[ 8] [ 9] Canary Islands , since 1946 (rest of Spain isCET ,UTC+01:00 )[ 10] Faroe Islands , since 1908[ 11] North EasternGreenland (Danmarkshavn and surrounding area)[ 12] Iceland , since 1968, without summer time changes[ 13] All the above countries except Iceland[ 14] daylight saving time in summer (from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October each year), switching toWestern European Summer Time (WEST,UTC+01:00 ), which is one hour ahead of WET.[ 15] British Summer Time in the UK and is legally defined asIrish Standard Time in Ireland.
The nominal span of the UTC+00:00 time zone is 7.5°E to 7.5°W (0° ± 7.5°), but does not include theNetherlands ,Belgium ,Luxembourg ,France ,Gibraltar orSpain (except Canary Islands) which useCentral European Time (CET) even though these are mostly or completely west of 7.5°E. Conversely, Iceland and eastern Greenland use UTC+00:00 although both are west of 7.5°W. In September 2013, aSpanish parliamentary committee recommended switching to UTC+00:00.[ 16] [ 17] [ 18]
A slight variation of UTC+00:00, based until 1911 on theParis Meridian , was used in:
Until theSecond World War , France used UTC+00:00. However, theGerman occupation switched France to German time, and it has remained in CET since then.[ 31] Belgium and theNetherlands , did the same, and Spain also switched to CET in solidarity with Germany under the orders ofGeneral Franco .[ 32]
In the United Kingdom, from 1940 to 1945British Summer Time (BST=CET ) was used in winters, and from 1941 to 1945 and again in 1947, British Double Summer Time (BDST=CEST ) was used in summers. Between 18 February 1968 and 31 October 1971,BST was used all year round.[ 33] [ 34]
In Ireland, from 1940 to 1946Irish Summer Time (IST=CET ) was used all year round, with no 'double' summer time akin to that in the United Kingdom. Between 18 February 1968 and 31 October 1971,Irish Standard Time was used all year round.[ 35] [ 36]
In Portugal,CET was used in themainland from 1966 to 1976 and from 1992 to 1996. Theautonomous region of theAzores used WET from 1992 to 1993.[ 37] [ 38] [ 39]
Difference between legal time and local mean solar time in Europe during the winter Colour Legal time vs local mean time 1 h ± 30 m behind 0 h ± 30 m 1 h ± 30 m ahead 2 h ± 30 m ahead
Regions located outside UTC longitudes [ edit ] Located west of 22°30′ W ("physical" UTC−2)
[ edit ] UTC+00:00 longitudes using other time zones[ edit ] These areas are actually located between 7°30′E and 7°30′W (nominally UTC+0) but useUTC+01:00 (Central European Time , nominally for longitudes between 7°30′E and 22°30′E):
All of
and most of
and minor parts of other countries.
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