US Time Zones Map: States, UTC Offsets and DST Exceptions

1. How to read the map

The four contiguous-US zones generally progress from Pacific in the west to Eastern in the east. Moving one zone east normally puts the clock one hour ahead when both places follow the same seasonal rule. Alaska and Hawaii add two more standard zones across the 50 states.

The colored boundaries come from the US Department of Transportation’s time-zone data, not from drawing straight lines through state capitals. Legal boundaries may follow county lines, rivers or other described features. Fourteen states intersect two legal standard time zones. A large-scale national map cannot show every small exception clearly.

Thin lines provide state context. They are not always time-zone boundaries: Texas, for example, contains both Central and Mountain areas. For state names and capitals without the time-zone layer, see our US states map. Our guide to why time-zone borders zigzag explains why civil time does not follow a simple longitude grid.

Important: Arizona stays Mountain-colored on this map even when Phoenix and Los Angeles show the same time. Matching clocks does not mean the two places share the same standard geographic zone.

2. Standard and daylight UTC offsets

UTC is the reference used to express time offsets. UTC−5 means five hours behind UTC; UTC+10 means ten hours ahead. Where daylight saving time applies, the clock advances one hour, making the offset one hour less negative.

Under the federal rule, participating places move forward at 2 a.m. local time on the second Sunday in March and move back at 2 a.m. local time on the first Sunday in November. The spring change skips an hour; the fall change repeats an hour. That is why a date and a location matter when interpreting a timestamp around a clock change.

ET is not always EST. ET is a general label for Eastern Time; EST specifically means Eastern Standard Time. An appointment in New York during daylight saving time is on EDT, not EST. The same distinction applies to PT versus PST or PDT. For a calendar invitation, selecting a city-based time zone is safer than typing a fixed abbreviation.

3. Time zones by state

The table follows federal standard-zone boundaries. Unless noted otherwise, states observe daylight saving time. Descriptions of split states are geographic summaries, not a replacement for the full legal boundary. The District of Columbia, which is not a state, uses Eastern Time and observes daylight saving time.

Arizona is not counted among the 14 states split between two standard geographic zones. Its complication is different daylight-saving observance within the Mountain zone. Nevada is counted because the federal boundary places West Wendover in Mountain Time, even though that small area is hard to see on a national overview.

4. Arizona, Hawaii and Alaska exceptions

Arizona: Mountain Time with different seasonal rules

Phoenix and Tucson use Mountain Standard Time, UTC−7, throughout the year. The Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time, including its Arizona portion. The Hopi Nation does not. These rules create a more complicated pattern than a single statewide “Arizona does not change clocks” label suggests.

During daylight saving time, Phoenix and Los Angeles both use UTC−7, while Denver uses UTC−6. During standard time, Phoenix and Denver both use UTC−7, while Los Angeles uses UTC−8. Phoenix has not moved between Mountain and Pacific zones; other places have changed their seasonal offsets. Confirm local operating hours with the specific business or attraction when traveling through northeastern Arizona.

Hawaii: no seasonal clock change

Hawaii stays at UTC−10. It is two hours behind Los Angeles when California is on Pacific Standard Time and three hours behind when California is on Pacific Daylight Time. The name Hawaii–Aleutian does not mean that every place in the zone follows Hawaii’s no-DST rule.

Alaska: two zones, both with daylight saving time

Most of Alaska uses Alaska Standard Time, UTC−9, changing to UTC−8 during daylight saving time. The Aleutian Islands west of 169°30′ west longitude use Hawaii–Aleutian Standard Time, UTC−10, changing to UTC−9 during daylight saving time. The state should therefore not be labeled as one uniform time zone.

5. US territories and time differences

The nine-zone legal count includes the inhabited US territories. These territories do not appear on the 50-state map, so use this table rather than assuming an island’s zone from its position on a mainland map.

None of the five territories in the table observes daylight saving time. Puerto Rico therefore matches New York’s clock during Eastern Daylight Time, but is one hour ahead during Eastern Standard Time. American Samoa should not be confused with the independent country of Samoa, which is not covered by this table.

For a quick contiguous-US example, when it is noon in New York, it is 11 a.m. in Chicago, 10 a.m. in Denver and 9 a.m. in Los Angeles under their usual matching seasonal schedules. Do not automatically extend that shortcut to Arizona, Hawaii or the territories: their differences from DST-observing cities can change seasonally.

To calculate a specific difference, identify both places’ offsets on the relevant date and subtract them. At the same instant, UTC−4 is three hours ahead of UTC−7. Across large Pacific differences, also check the calendar date; equal-looking clock times alone do not establish that two places are on the same day.