UTC offset


The UTC offset is the difference in hours and minutes from Coordinated Universal Time for a particular place and date. It is generally shown in the format ±:, ±, or ±. So if the time being described is one hour ahead of UTC, the UTC offset would be "+01:00", "+0100", or simply "+01".
Every inhabited place in the world has a UTC offset that is a multiple of 15 minutes, and the majority of offsets are measured in whole hours. There are many cases where the national civil time uses a UTC offset that is different to the theoretical one appropriate to its longitude.

Time zones and time offsets

A time zone is a geographical region in which residents observe the same standard time.
A time offset is an amount of time subtracted from or added to Coordinated Universal Time time to get the current civil time, whether it is standard time or daylight saving time.
In any particular time zone, residents either observe standard time all year round, or observe standard time during winter and daylight time during summer.

Daylight saving time

Several regions in North America, Europe and Australia use daylight saving time. The UTC offset during observation of DST is typically obtained by adding one hour to standard time. Central European Time is replaced by Central European Summer Time, and Pacific Standard Time is replaced by Pacific Daylight Time.