Time Zone Offset from Universal Time

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the system of time used in astronomy and meteorology. This is also equivalent to Zulu (Z) Time and is measured on the Prime Meridian (0 degrees longitude) in Greenwich, England.

UTC is not the same as GMT, as UTC is an ATOMIC time-scale, whereas GMT (strictly speaking UT1 [UT-one]) is tied to the rotation of the Earth in respect to the fictitious 'mean Sun'. UTC is, however, kept within 0.9 seconds of UT1, by virtue of leap seconds.

The abbreviation UTC is a language-independent international abbreviation, it is neither English nor French. It means both 'Coordinated Universal Time' and 'Temps Universel Coordonne[acute]'. For the term 'Coordinated Universal Time' (UTC), I refer you to the following websites:

• BIPM Time Section; the world's governing body for civil atomic time-scales
• BIPM Time Section (for the French version of these two web pages, click on 'Version francaise'.)
• The International Earth Rotation Service
• A good history of UTC and GMT
• US. National Institute of Standards & Technology
• UK's National Physical Laboratory
• US Naval Observatory
• The International Telecommunications Union

If you are located in the United States, and want to convert from Universal Time Coordinates, or UTC to your local time, check out the table below.

Time Zone	EDT	EST or CDT	CST or MDT	MST or PDT	PST
Offset	UTC-4	UTC-5	UTC-6	UTC-7	UTC-8