The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean islands and part of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). During the summer, most of the area uses Daylight Saving Time (DST) and switches to Central Daylight Time (CDT), which is five hours behind UTC. [1]
The largest city in the Central Time Zone is Mexico City ; the Mexico City metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan area in the zone and in North America.
Regions using Central Time (North American) Canada
The province of Manitoba is the only province or territory in Canada that observes Central Standard Time in all areas.
The following Canadian provinces and territories observe Central Standard Time in the areas indicated, while their other areas observe Eastern Standard Time :
- Nunavut (territory): western areas (most of the Kivalliq region and part of the Qikiqtaaluk region ).
- Ontario (province): a northwestern part bordering southeastern Manitoba, in and around Kenora .
In addition, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, never conforming to daylight saving time. Major exceptions include Lloydminster , a city located on the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city’s charter stipulates that it will observe mountain time and daylight saving time, putting the community on the same time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary and Edmonton . As a result, during the summer, clocks throughout the province match those in Alberta, but during the winter, clocks in most of the province match those in Manitoba.
United States
Ten states are included in the Central Time Zone in their entirety:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Louisiana
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- Wisconsin
Five states are divided between the Central Time Zone and the Mountain Time Zone:
- Kansas : all except Sherman , Wallace , Greeley and Hamilton counties.
- Nebraska: eastern two-thirds
- North Dakota : all except the southwestern regions, the southern part of McKenzie County and most of Dunn County and the western end of Sioux County
- South Dakota : eastern half
- Texas : all except El Paso and Hudspeth counties
Five states are divided between the central time zone and the eastern time zone:
- Florida : Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River
- Indiana : northwest and southwest regions
- Kentucky : western half
- Michigan : Gogebic , Iron , Dickinson and Menominee counties
- Tennessee : West Tennessee and Middle Tennessee
- In addition, Phenix City, Alabama , and several nearby communities in Russell County, Alabama , unofficially observe Eastern time. This is due to their proximity to Columbus, Georgia , which is on Eastern Time.
Mexico
Most of Mexico, approximately three-quarters of the east, is in the central time zone, except for six northwestern states (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora and most of Nayarit) and one southeastern state (Quintana Roo).
The Mexican states that observe central time:
- Aguascalientes
- Campeche
- Coahuila
- Colima : except for the Revillagigedo Islands , where the inner islands use mountain time and the outer island uses Pacific time.
- Chiapas
- Durango
- Guanajuato
- Guerrero
- Hidalgo
- Jalisco
- Mexico City
- Michoacán
- Morelos
- Nayarit – * only the municipality of Bahía de Banderas, rest of the state uses Mountain Time
- Nuevo Leon
- Oaxaca
- Puebla
- Querétaro
- San Luis Potosi
- State of Mexico
- Tabasco
- Tamaulipas
- Tlaxcala
- Veracruz
- Yucatan
- Zacatecas
Central America
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua use Central Standard Time throughout the year.
Eastern Pacific Islands and other areas
The Galapagos Islands in Ecuador use Central Standard Time throughout the year; the rest of Ecuador uses Eastern Standard Time. Both Easter Island and Salas y Gomez Island in Chile use Central Standard Time during the winter in the Southern Hemisphere and Central Daylight Time during the summer of the Southern Hemisphere; the rest of Chile uses Atlantic Standard Time and Atlantic Daylight Time.
Central Daylight Time
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called “Central Daylight Time” (CDT) and is UTC – 05: 00 . In Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason for Saskatchewan’s lack of a time change is that, geographically, the entire province is closer to the meridian of the Mountain time zone. The province chose to move to “permanent” daylight saving time by being part of the Central time zone. The only exception is the region immediately surrounding the Saskatchewan side of the bi-provincial city of Lloydminster , which has chosen to use Mountain Time with DST, synchronizing its clocks with those of Alberta.
In those areas of the Canadian and U.S. time zones that observe Daylight Saving Time, starting in 2007, local time changes to 02:00 local standard time at 03:00 local time on the second Sunday in March and returns to 02:00 local time until 01:00 local standard time on the first Sunday in November. Mexico decided not to accept this change and observes daylight saving time from the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Standard Time, to adopt U.S. Daylight Saving Time, effective in 2010.
Alphabetical list of major metropolitan areas in the Central Time Zone
- Acapulco, Guerrero
- Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes
- Amarillo, Texas
- Antigua, Guatemala
- Arlington, Texas
- Aurora, Illinois
- Austin, Texas
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Beaumont / Port Arthur, Texas
- Belize City, Belize
- Belmopan, Belize
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Bismarck, North Dakota
- Bloomington, Illinois
- Bowling Green, Kentucky
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Champaign, Illinois
- Chicago, Illinois
- Clarksville, Tennessee
- Comarca Lagunera ( Torreon , Gomez Palacio , Lerdo )
- Columbia, Missouri
- Cookeville, Tennessee
- Cuernavaca, Morelos
- Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
- Iowa
- Enid, Oklahoma
- Evansville, Indiana
- Fargo, North Dakota
- Fort Smith, Arkansas
- Fort Walton Beach, Florida
- Gary, Indiana
- Grand Forks, North Dakota
- Grand Rapids, Manitoba
- Green Bay, Wisconsin
- Guadalajara, Jalisco
- Guatemala City, Guatemala
- Hammond, Indiana
- Houston, Texas
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Iowa City, Iowa
- Iron Mountain, Michigan
- Jackson, Mississippi
- Jackson, Tennessee
- Janesville, Wisconsin
- Jonesboro, Arkansas
- Joplin, Missouri
- Kansas City, Missouri – Kansas
- Kenosha, Wisconsin
- Lafayette, Louisiana
- Lawrence, Kansas
- Lawton, Oklahoma
- Leon, Guanajuato
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Lubbock, Texas
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Managua, Nicaragua
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Merida, Yucatan
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Midland / Odessa, Texas
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
- Minot, North Dakota
- Mobile, Alabama
- Monterrey , Nuevo Leon
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Nashville, Tennessee
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Normal, Illinois
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Panama City, Florida
- Pensacola, Florida
- Peoria, Illinois
- Puebla City
- Quad Cities, Iowa / Illinois
- Racine, Wisconsin
- Red Lake, Ontario
- Regina, Saskatchewan
- Rockford, Illinois
- Ruston, Louisiana
- Sioux City, Iowa
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- St. Louis, Missouri
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Jose, Costa Rica
- San Luis Potosi City
- San Pedro Sula , Honduras
- San Salvador , El Salvador
- Santiago de Querétaro , Querétaro
- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- Shreveport – Bossier City, Louisiana
- Springfield, Illinois
- Springfield, Missouri
- Tampico , Tamaulipas
- Tegucigalpa, Honduras
- Thompson, Manitoba
- Toluca, State of Mexico
- Topeka, Kansas
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Waukegan, Illinois
- Wheaton, Illinois
- Wichita, Kansas
- Wichita Falls, Texas
- Winnipeg, Manitoba
- Zacatecas, Zacatecas