Did you know that Europe is actually divided into 4 separate time zones?

The first zone starts at UTC + 0 and the last is UTC + 3.

 

Western Europe Time Zones

In Western Europe, the region is normally on Western European Time (WET) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) with no offset. During Daylight Saving, those regions change to Western European Summer Time (WEST), British Summer Time (BST) and Irish Summer Time (IST) with an offset of UTC + 1.

When Daylight Saving starts at the beginning of summer the clocks move forward at 1 AM local time to 2 AM. When it ends they move back an hour to 1 AM again.

Locations this applies to include:

• Canary Islands

• Faroe Islands

• Ireland

• Portugal

• United Kingdom

Of course, Iceland also falls under this ruling except the country remains on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) all year.

 

Central Europe Time Zones

In Central Europe, the region is normally on Central European Time (CET) with an offset of UTC + 1. During Daylight Saving, the regions change to Central European Summer Time (CEST) with an offset of UTC + 2.

When Daylight Saving starts at the beginning of summer the clocks move forward at 2 AM local time to 3 AM. When it ends they move back an hour to 2 AM again.

Locations this applies to include:

• Albania

• Austria

• Belgium

• Croatia

• Denmark

• France

• Germany

• Hungary

• Italy

• Netherlands

• Norway

• Poland

• Slovakia

• Spain

• Sweden

• Switzerland

 

Eastern Europe Time Zones

In Eastern Europe, the region is normally on Eastern European Time (EET) with an offset of UTC + 2. During Daylight Saving, the regions change to Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) with an offset of UTC + 3.

When Daylight Saving starts at the beginning of summer the clocks move forward at 3 AM local time to 4 AM. When it ends they move back an hour to 3 AM again.

Locations this applies to include:

• Bulgaria

• Estonia

• Finland

• Greece

• Latvia

• Lithuania

• Moldova

• Romania

• Turkey

• Ukraine

• Kaliningrad, Russia

It's worth noting that in the country of Ukraine several areas do not follow these standards. Those areas include Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk.

 

Belarus and Western Russia Exceptions

Belarus and Western Russia do not observe Daylight Saving. Therefore, year round these two regions follow Further-Eastern European Time (FET) and Moscow Standard Time (MSK) respectively with an offset of UTC + 3.

 

Daylight Saving In Europe

Daylight Saving in Europe starts on the last Sunday of March every year, and the changes vary across the country because there are so many time zones used. The Daylight Saving period is all over on the last Sunday of October and clocks are returned to normal.

There is one region in the area that does not observe Daylight Saving, and that's Iceland.

 

Related Articles: 

What is a Time Zone?

History of Time Zones