Glossary: UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the reference for the official time used by all countries in the world, and is the modern implementation of Greenwich Mean Time.

In Canada, the National Research Council (NRC) is the federal agency responsible for official time. The NRC clocks are used in conjunction with atomic clocks (the world's best timekeepers) in the time laboratories of other countries to construct the internationally accepted scale of time, UTC.

UTC is also the standard time used by the World Meteorological Organization for reporting all meteorological data.

LOCAL CANADIAN TIME ZONES VERSUS UTC

Winter Time Zones (first Sunday in November to second Sunday in March)

Pacific Standard Time (PST) is UTC minus 8 hours
Mountain Standard Time (MST) is UTC minus 7 hours
Central Standard Time (CST) is UTC minus 6 hours
Eastern Standard Time (EST) is UTC minus 5 hours
Atlantic Standard Time (AST) is UTC minus 4 hours
Newfoundland Standard Time (NST) is UTC minus 3 hours and 30 minutes

Summer Time Zones (second Sunday in March to first Sunday in November)

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) is UTC minus 7 hours
Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) is UTC minus 6 hours
Central Daylight Time (CDT) is UTC minus 5 hours
Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is UTC minus 4 hours
Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT) is UTC minus 3 hours
Newfoundland Daylight Time (NDT) is UTC minus 2 hours and 30 minutes