Many official government reports regarding natural disasters (like tsunamis) are timestamped with UTC (coodinated universal time). It’s also the default timestamp for WordPress. UTC, a 24-hour time notation, used to be known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
For people in the United States (anyone west of the zero meridian and east of the international date line), we subtract hours from the UTC. For example, 2100 UTC is 1300 or 1.00 pm PST.
The following chart is a crib sheet for the continental U.S.
| UTC/GMT | EDT (-4) |
EST/CDT (-5) |
CST/MDT (-6) |
MST/PDT (-7) |
PST (-8) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0000 | 8 PM | 7 PM | 6 PM | 5 PM | 4 PM |
| 0100 | 9 PM | 8 PM | 7 PM | 6 PM | 5 PM |
| 0200 | 10 PM | 9 PM | 8 PM | 7 PM | 6 PM |
| 0300 | 11 PM | 10 PM | 9 PM | 8 PM | 7 PM |
| 0400 | Midnight | 11 PM | 10 PM | 9 PM | 8 PM |
| 0500 | 1 AM | Midnight | 11 PM | 10 PM | 9 PM |
| 0600 | 2 AM | 1 AM | Midnight | 11 PM | 10 PM |
| 0700 | 3 AM | 2 AM | 1 AM | Midnight | 11 PM |
| 0800 | 4 AM | 3 AM | 2 AM | 1 AM | Midnight |
| 0900 | 5 AM | 4 AM | 3 AM | 2 AM | 1 AM |
| 1000 | 6 AM | 5 AM | 4 AM | 3 AM | 2 AM |
| 1100 | 7 AM | 6 AM | 5 AM | 4 AM | 3 AM |
| 1200 | 8 AM | 7 AM | 6 AM | 5 AM | 4 AM |
| 1300 | 9 AM | 8 AM | 7 AM | 6 AM | 5 AM |
| 1400 | 10 AM | 9 AM | 8 AM | 7 AM | 6 AM |
| 1500 | 11 AM | 10 AM | 9 AM | 8 AM | 7 AM |
| 1600 | Noon | 11 AM | 10 AM | 9 AM | 8 AM |
| 1700 | 1 PM | Noon | 11 AM | 10 AM | 9 AM |
| 1800 | 2 PM | 1 PM | Noon | 11 AM | 10 AM |
| 1900 | 3 PM | 2 PM | 1 PM | Noon | 11 AM |
| 2000 | 4 PM | 3 PM | 2 PM | 1 PM | Noon |
| 2100 | 5 PM | 4 PM | 3 PM | 2 PM | 1 PM |
| 2200 | 6 PM | 5 PM | 4 PM | 3 PM | 2 PM |
| 2300 | 7 PM | 6 PM | 5 PM | 4 PM | 3 PM |
2 replies on “How To Convert Time To UTC”
[…] 00:29:17: @joeruiz You’re welcome! I also have it on my blog – much better formatting: http://wiredpen.com/2011/03/11/how-to-convert-time-to-utc/ […]
[…] GILL in Breaking News.Mar 11th, 2011 Tsunami Times – Japanese Earthquke – NOAA At 07:30 UTC (11.30 PST) the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a “widespread tsunami warning” for the […]