US GEOGRAPHY AND TIME ZONES

The United States is a country in the Western Hemisphere. It consists of forty-eight contiguous states in North America, Alaska, a peninsula which forms the north-western most part of North America, and Hawaii, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. There are several United States territories in the Pacific and Caribbean. The term "United States", when used in the geographical sense, means the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The country shares land borders with Canada and Mexico and maritime (water) borders with Russia, Cuba, and The Bahamas in addition to Canada and Mexico Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_United_States What Is A Time Zone? A time zone is a region on Earth that has a legally recognized standard time. This time is usually known as "local time" and is different from local time in other time zones. For example, Houston is in the Central Time Zone and New York City is one zone east, in the Eastern Time Zone. This means that when it's 10:00 AM in Houston it's 11:00 AM in New York. The borders of different time zones often run along the borders of states, which means that you can drive into a different time zone at the same time that you cross from one state into another. As soon as you cross the border, POOF, and it's one hour later or earlier! As you can imagine, this sudden

time change can make it tricky to keep a schedule, which is why it's important to familiarize yourself with a US time zone map! We, in India follow IST which is equivalent to GMT/UTC + 5:30 whereas EST is GMT/UTC 5:00 and CST is GMT/UTC 6:00. NY is in EST hence, we are 9:30 hours ahead of American Eastern time. UTC: Coordinated Universal Time. UTC is now referred to as GMT GMT: Greenwich Mean Time How to Read A US Time Zone Map Time zone maps separate the US into vertical blocks that represent different time zones. Each zone is usually highlighted with a different color and shows what time it would be in that zone compared to other zones. Each time zone has a name that reflects its location. For example, the Pacific Time Zone (or Pacific Time) is made up of states like California and Nevada that are on or near the Pacific Ocean. The Eastern Time Zone (or Eastern Time) is made up of states like Florida and New York that are in the eastern part of the country. US Time Zones: Unlike India (we have only one time zone known as IST), there are 6 time zones in the United States. From west to east, they are: Hawaii Standard Time (UTC-10) Alaska Standard Time (UTC-09) Pacific Standard Time (UTC-08) Mountain Standard Time (UTC-07) Central Standard Time (UTC-06) Eastern Standard Time (UTC-05)

Map of USA with Time Zones:

List of Which States Lie In Each Time Zone: States are listed in order from north to south, moving from west to east in each time zone. See the US time zone map above to get a better sense of where states and time zones are located. Hawaii Standard Time: Hawaii Alaska Standard Time: Alaska Pacific Standard Time: Washington; Oregon (western section); California; Idaho (northern section); Nevada; Mountain Standard Time; Montana; Oregon (eastern section); Idaho (southern section); Utah; Arizona; Wyoming; Colorado; New Mexico; Texas (western section); North Dakota (south western section); South Dakota (south western section); Nebraska (western section); Kansas (western section) Central Standard Time: North Dakota (eastern section); South Dakota (eastern section); Nebraska (eastern section); Kansas (eastern section); Oklahoma; Texas; Minnesota; Iowa; Missouri; Arkansas; Louisiana; Michigan (Upper Peninsula southern section); Wisconsin; Illinois; Kentucky (western section); Tennessee (western section); Mississippi; Indiana (western section); Alabama; Florida (north-western section) Eastern Standard Time: Michigan (except for Upper Peninsula southern section); Indiana (eastern section); Kentucky (eastern section); Tennessee (eastern section); Georgia; Florida (south-eastern section); Ohio; West Virginia; Virginia; North Carolina; South Carolina; New York; Pennsylvania; Maryland; New Jersey; Delaware; Vermont; Massachusetts; Connecticut; New Hampshire; Rhode Island; Maine

Daylight Saving Time (DST) When you're looking at a US time zone map you may see a reference to Daylight Saving Time, or DST. Daylight Saving is a process in which certain countries and/or regions set clocks an hour later during spring and summer so that afternoons and evenings have more daylight. They then set clocks an hour earlier in autumn (the exact dates that DST begins and ends vary by year). Different parts of the world choose whether or not to recognize DST, which can be confusing if you're traveling through them in the summer. The United States, for example, observe DST except for Hawaii and most of Arizona. These two states don't adjust their clocks when the rest of the country does. For instance, Arizona is one time zone east of California which means that the time in Arizona should always be an hour later than in California, right? Well, not always! California sets its clocks later an hour during Daylight Saving (spring and summer) but Arizona doesn't. So if you drive from California into Arizona during these months you don't have to change your clocks at all because the two states will be on the same time until California sets its clocks back an hour in autumn! If this is a bit confusing, take a look at the US time zone map above. It shows which states belong to each time zone and which of these regions observe DST

US States and Territories with Abbreviations and Time Zones:

Serial 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Name ALABAMA ALASKA ARIZONA ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA COLORADO CONNECTICUT DELAWARE FLORIDA GEORGIA HAWAII IDAHO ILLINOIS INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MAINE MARYLAND MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEVADA NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY

Abb AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ

Capital Montgomery Juneau Phoenix Little Rock Sacramento Denver Hartford Dover Tallahassee Atlanta Honolulu Boise Springfield Indianapolis Des Moines Topeka Frankfort Baton Rouge Augusta Annapolis Boston Lansing Saint Paul Jackson Jefferson City Helena Lincoln Carson City Concord Trenton

Time Zone 1 CST (UTC-6) AKST (UTC-09) MT (UTC-07) CST (UTC-6) PT (UTC-8) MT (UTC-07) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) HST (UTC-10) MT (UTC-07) CST (UTC-6) EST (UTC-5) CST (UTC-6) CST (UTC-6) EST (UTC-5) CST (UTC-6) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) CST (UTC-6) CST (UTC-6) CST (UTC-6) MT (UTC-07) CST (UTC-6) PT (UTC-8) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5)

Time Zone 2 EST (UTC-5) HST (UTC-10)

DST YES YES NO YES YES YES YES YES

CST (UTC-6)

YES YES NO

PT (UTC-8)

YES YES

CST (UTC-6)

YES YES

MT (UTC-07) CST (UTC-6)

YES YES YES YES YES YES

CST (UTC-6)

YES YES YES YES YES

MT (UTC-07) MT (UTC-07)

YES YES YES YES

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

NEW MEXICO NEW YORK NORTH CAROLINA NORTH DAKOTA OHIO OKLAHOMA OREGON PENNSYLVANIA RHODE ISLAND SOUTH CAROLINA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS UTAH VERMONT VIRGINIA WASHINGTON WEST VIRGINIA WISCONSIN WYOMING

NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY

Santa Fe Albany Raleigh Bismarck Columbus Oklahoma City Salem Harrisburg Providence Columbia Pierre Nashville Austin Salt Lake City Montpelier Richmond Olympia Charleston Madison Cheyenne

MT (UTC-07) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) CST (UTC-6) EST (UTC-5) CST (UTC-6) PT (UTC-8) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) CST (UTC-6) CST (UTC-6) CST (UTC-6) MT (UTC-07) EST (UTC-5) EST (UTC-5) PT (UTC-8) EST (UTC-5) CST (UTC-6) MT (UTC-07) MT (UTC-07) EST (UTC-5) MT (UTC-07) MT (UTC-07) MT (UTC-07)

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES