⏰ Time is a funny thing! For starters, how are we already nearly in August?
But more importantly, when examined closely, time reveals several excellent #geoweirdness examples. In this week's thread, we’ll look at some of the weirdest timezone quirks from around the world.
To get us started here’s a map of the world as segmented by the tz database.
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2/ Before we go full #geoweirdness , a bit of #geoeducation
Time zone information is tracked by the "tz" database, a fascinating, open-source project worth learning about!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database
Most countries have simple time zones, generally based on the sun's position relative to the region's positions on the Earth's surface. However, time zones also involves political and historical factors, and thus they don't always correspond to the longitudinal lines on the globe.
3/ Let's get into the #geoweirdness
We start with countries where the time zone doesn’t fall on the hour, usually changing with increments of 15 minutes.
Examples include Chatham Standard Time (UTC+12:45) and India Standard Time (+05:30).
Time in India 🇮🇳 is worth a thread in itself, though. For example, Bombay Time (+4:51) was used in 1884 (!) and is still used by some Parsi fire temples in Mumbai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Time
4/ Some countries like China 🇨🇳 use a single time zone (UTC+08:00), regardless of geography.
This timezone makes sense for Beijing, but not for western territories of the country. This leads to the odd situation that when you cross the border from China to neighbouring Afghanistan 🇦🇫 you change time by 3 hours and 30 minutes.
5/ Other "wide" countries like the US 🇺🇸 have multiple time zones. Local rules can lead to all sorts of #geoweirdness
Consider Arizona. Due to sunny climate, the state does not observe daylight savings time. Except of course within the Navajo Nation, which thus has a different time from the rest of the state for half the year. But of course the Hopi Reservation, an enclave within the Navajo Nation does follow DST. So you change tz six times by taking Route 264!
6/ Equally odd is the US 🇺🇸 state of Indiana. Most counties in the state use Eastern Time, UTC-05:00.
Emphasis on the word "most"! 12 of 92 counties, however, observe Central Time, meaning their inhabitants are one hour behind their counterparts.
Even more interestingly, these counties are split in opposite corners of the state.
7/ There are some places on Earth where three time zones meet in a single point.
The most well known spots are possibly in 🇦🇺 Australia's outback.
Readers who enjoy a bit of postcode madness with their time zone oddities (who doesn't) will particularly enjoy Australian postcode "0872" which spans multiple timezones as it covers parts of South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.
8/ Time zones and especially DST rules change frequently. And sometimes with only minimal notice!
Last year there was major confusion in Lebanon 🇱🇧 due to last-minute (pun intended) disagreement as to whether to follow DST or not.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65079574
In 2011 Samoa 🇼🇸 shifted from one side of the International Date Line to the other, skipping the entire calendar day of Friday, 30 December 2011 in the process
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Samoa#2011_time_zone_change
9/ Time can be a very political.
Spain 🇪🇸 currently uses Central European Time, a change made by dictator Franco in 1940 to align with Nazi Germany. The change was never reverted and has become subject to much debate.
Some feel this causes Spain’s “late-night culture,” and are pushing for a change to boost productivity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Spain#Criticism_of_the_use_of_Central_European_Time
Portugal 🇵🇹 actually switched to CET in the early 90s but then reverted due to public dissatisfaction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Portugal#Switch_to_Central_European_Time
10/ Antarctica sits on every longitudinal line and thus in theory uses every time zone.
In practice each research station chooses a timezone to use.
11/ ⌛Time’s almost up on this thread (sorry 😂).
As members of the geosphere will be well aware, geo extends far beyond cartography and mapping.
As the saying goes "Everything happens somewhere", but the next question is usually "When?" Which is precisely why we return timezone information as an "annotation" in our geocoding API results
12/ We hope you enjoyed our look at the #geoweirdness of time zones 🕘🕥🕢.
Thanks for reading and sharing. What other strange time zone examples did we overlook?
We have many more threads about specific countries and regions, border disputes, geocoding, etc over on our blog, enjoy
@quincy Thank you!
Please share with anyone who might find them interesting. All ideas for new topics are gladly received, especially as over the past years we've covered many of the "obvious" examples of #geoweirdness
@MennoWolff @opencage Which is essentially the same.
I remember voxpop at the time, where the question "Which do you prefer, winter or summer time all year long" was answered by "Eeehm, I prefer summer time! Nice and warm!"
😠
I spent the last month mapping time zone boundaries in the United States – not just the present-day boundaries, but also all of their previous versions, going all the way back to when the federal government began regulating timekeeping in 1919. In total, I’ve mapped 130 versions of nine time zones. As far as I know, OpenHistoricalMap might be the first comprehensive source of historical U.S. time zone boundary data on the Internet, and by far the most detailed. Time zone boundaries don’t show u...
@ottaross the "America" is a reference to the continent
"The continents and oceans used are Africa, America, Antarctica, Arctic, Asia, Atlantic, Australia, Europe, Indian, and Pacific."
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database#Names_of_timezones
@ottaross it's kind of a silly question but which do you pick of Toronto and Montreal?
I go with Toronto because it's the same province as Ottawa even though Montreal is actually closer.
What little rationale I have for that is my thinking that a change in TZ (say no more DST) is more likely to be a provincial or federal change rather than geographical. Using Toronto covers both provincial and federal. 🤷♂️
Simon Wüllhorst
OpenCage 👉🌍
Philip Kendall
Quincy ⁂
IIVQ
Menno
Robert Stainsby
Alan Bellingham
Klaus Stein
Derick Rethans
OpenHistoricalMap
Olivier Leroy
Pozorvlak
Anders Norén
Ross of Ottawa
kaybeeque 🍁💪💪🍁
abeorch
David Cantrell 🏏