UTC Times

[Anthony Silver]

I have a rather dumb question, but here it goes...What is UTC time and how do I relate that with standard time? The reason for asking is that I'm trying to set up my swift WX settings and It's asking how many hours I am behind or ahead of UTC..I guess I still havent grasped the concept yet. If anyone in the group can shed some light on this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

 

[Ben Prusia]

Anthony: You are -5 from UTC. Once we shift out of daylight saving time, we would be at -6 from UTC.

Right now it is 12:00PM CDT, so it would be 1700UTC. UTC is the universal time code, it is the same as GMT time, or Z time.

 

[William Scheftic]

UTC is the time that it is in Greenwich, England. Sometimes reffered to as GMT or Zulu (Z) time. Eastern Standard Time (EST) is 5 hours behind UTC and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is 4 hours behind UTC. Since you are in Central time, right now you would be 5 hours behind UTC. So 12:00 UTC would be 7:00 CDT, and 00:00 UTC would be 19:00 (7 PM) CDT.

 

[Mike Sharp]

You can also get your offset if you go to the time settings on your PC.
Click on the time which will bring up the screen for resetting it. Then Click on Time zone that will give you the settings worldwide.

 

[Anthony Silver]

Thanks for the info guys, I think I've got the hang of it now. I appreciate all of your help!

 

[Kurt Silvey]

Another good thing to keep in mind, is that when the models say 0000z, they are referring to what we would normally call 12:00 midnight, so if the model is stamped 0000z WED, this would be the same as midnight Tuesday, then adjust for your local offset. Currently 0000z would be 19:00z or 7:00pm here in the Central Time Zone.

 

[Walker Ashley]

You may find this table helpful.

Good luck ...

 

[Amos Magliocco]

If you use a cell phone to keep a check of time during the day, as many people do now, see if you can set your cellphone to a military-style time status, and then use the UTC. Eventually you will begin to "think" in UTC, and the conversion to conventional times will come easier since there are clocks and digital time displays all around us.