Eastern Time Zone

The boundaries of the Eastern Time Zone have moved westward since the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) took over time-zone management from railroads in 1938. For example, the easternmost and northernmost counties in Kentucky were added to the zone in the 1940s, and in 1961 most of the state went Eastern. In 2000, Wayne County, on the Tennessee border, switched from Central to Eastern.[1] Within the United States, the Eastern Time Zone is the most populous region, with nearly half of the country's population.

In March 2019, the Florida Legislature passed a bill requesting authorization from Congress for year-round daylight saving time, which would effectively put Florida on Atlantic Standard Time year-round (except for west of the Apalachicola River, which would be on Eastern Standard Time year-round).[2] A similar bill was proposed for the Canadian province of Ontario by its legislative assembly in late 2020, which would have a similar effect on the province if passed.[3]

For those in the United States, daylight saving time for the Eastern Time Zone was introduced by the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which specified that daylight saving time would run from the last Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October.[4] The act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of daylight saving time beginning in 1987.[4]

Later, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the United States, beginning in 2007. Since then, local times change at 2:00 a.m. EST to 3:00 a.m. EDT on the second Sunday in March, and return from 2:00 a.m. EDT to 1:00 a.m. EST on the first Sunday in November.[4]

In Canada, daylight saving time begins and ends on the same days and at the same times as it does in the United States.[5][6]

In Canada, the following provinces and territories are part of the Eastern Time Zone:[7] Within Canada, as with the United States, the Eastern Time zone is the most populous time zone.

• Most of Ontario
• Most of Quebec
• Most of Nunavut

Most of Canada observes daylight saving time synchronously with the United States, with the exception of Saskatchewan, Yukon,[8] and several other very localized areas.

The boundary between time zones is set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations, with the boundary between the Eastern and Central Time Zones being specifically detailed in 49 C.F.R. part 71.[9]

Washington, D.C. and 17 states are located entirely within the Eastern Time Zone. They are:

• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Georgia
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia

Five states are partly in the Eastern Time Zone, with the remaining portions in the Central Time Zone. The following locations observe Eastern Time:

• Florida – peninsula and Big Bend regions east of the Apalachicola River along with portions of Gulf County south of the Intracoastal Waterway.
• Indiana – all except for northwest (Gary) and southwest (Evansville) regions
• Kentucky – eastern 60%, including the state's three largest metropolitan areas: Louisville, Lexington, Northern Kentucky
• Michigan – all, except for the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin: Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, and Menominee
• Tennessee – East Tennessee[10]

Additionally, Phenix City, Alabama, and several nearby communities in Russell County, Alabama, unofficially observe Eastern Time.[11] This is due to their close proximity to Columbus, Georgia, which is on Eastern Time.

• Quintana Roo: This is the only Mexican state to observe EST. It moved from Central Time to Eastern Time after a successful lobbying effort by tourism interests.[12] Quintana Roo does not observe daylight saving time.

The Bahamas and Haiti officially observe both Eastern Standard Time during the winter months and Eastern Daylight Time during the summer months. Cuba generally follows the U.S. with Eastern Standard Time in the winter, and Eastern Daylight Time in the summer, but the exact day of change varies year to year. The Cayman Islands and Jamaica use Eastern Standard Time year-round.

In South America, the Brazilian states of Acre and the southwest part of Amazonas use Eastern Standard Time.[15] In 2008, Brazil changed the zone of these regions to be closer to that of the Brazilian Capital; however, the change was unpopular and thus undone in 2013.[16] Additionally, the countries of Panama, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador (excluding the Galápagos Islands, which use Central Standard Time), also use Eastern Standard Time year-round.[17]

• Effects of time zones on North American broadcasting

• Official U.S. time in the Eastern time zone
• North American Time Zone border data and images
• World time zone map Archived 24 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
• U.S. time zone map
• History of U.S. time zones and UTC conversion Archived 8 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• Canada time zone map
• Time zones for major world cities
• Official times across Canada
• Federal Regulations defining time zones