Time zones of Europe:

light blue	Western European Time (UTC+0)
blue	Western European Time (UTC+0) Western European Summer Time (UTC+01:00)
red	Central European Time (UTC+01:00) Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00)
yellow	Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00)
orange	Further-eastern European Time (UTC+03:00)
light green	Moscow Time (UTC+04:00)

Light colours indicate countries that do not observe summer time: Algeria, Belarus, Iceland, Russia, Tunisia.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a time system originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, which later became adopted as a global time standard. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United Kingdom, such as the BBC World Service,^[1] the Royal Navy, the Met Office and others.

Before the introduction of UTC on 1 January 1972 Greenwich Mean Time (also known as Zulu time) was the same as Universal Time (UT) which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields. Astronomers no longer use the term "Greenwich Mean Time".

In the United Kingdom, GMT is the official time only during winter; during summer British Summer Time is used. GMT is the same as Western European Time.^[2]

Noon Greenwich Mean Time is rarely the exact moment when the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian (and reaches its highest point in the sky at Greenwich) because of Earth's uneven speed in its elliptic orbit and its axial tilt. This event may be up to 16 minutes away from noon GMT (a discrepancy calculated by the equation of time). The fictitious mean sun is the annual average of this nonuniform motion of the true Sun, necessitating the inclusion of mean in Greenwich Mean Time.

Historically the term GMT has been used with two different conventions, sometimes numbering hours starting at midnight and sometimes starting at noon. The more specific terms UT and UTC do not share this ambiguity, always referring to midnight as zero hours. Astronomers preferred the latter GMT convention in order to simplify their observational data so that each entire night was logged under one single calendar date.

History[link]

Greenwich clock with standard measurements

As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT in order to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degrees (this convention was internationally adopted in the International Meridian Conference of 1884). Note that the synchronization of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time itself, which was still solar time. But this practice, combined with mariners from other nations drawing from Nevil Maskelyne's method of lunar distances based on observations at Greenwich, eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location. Most time zones were based upon this reference as a number of hours and half-hours "ahead of GMT" or "behind GMT".

Greenwich Mean Time was adopted across the island of Great Britain by the Railway Clearing House in 1847, and by almost all railway companies by the following year, from which the term "railway time" is derived. It was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held "local mean time" to be the official time. This changed in 1880, when GMT was legally adopted throughout the island of Great Britain. GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted Greenwich Mean Time in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time.^[3] Hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory obsolete in the process.

The daily rotation of the Earth is somewhat irregular (see ΔT) and is slowing down slightly; atomic clocks constitute a much more stable timebase. On 1 January 1972, GMT was replaced as the international time reference by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Universal Time (UT), a term introduced in 1928, initially represented mean time at Greenwich determined in the traditional way to accord with the originally-defined universal day; then from 1 January 1956 (as decided by the IAU at Dublin, 1955, at the initiative of William Markowitz) this 'raw' form of UT was re-labeled UT0 and effectively superseded by refined forms UT1 (UT0 equalized for the effects of polar wandering^[4]) and UT2 (UT1 further equalized for annual seasonal variations in earth rotation rate). Leap seconds are nowadays added to or subtracted from UTC to keep it within 0.9 seconds of UT1.

Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by 'the centre of the transit instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich'. Although that instrument still survives in working order, it is no longer in use and now the meridian of origin of the world's longitude and time is not strictly defined in material form but from a statistical solution resulting from observations of all time-determination stations which the BIPM takes into account when co-ordinating the world's time signals. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatory's courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that imaginary line which is now the Prime Meridian of the world."^[5]

Ambiguity in the definition of GMT[link]

Historically the term GMT has been used with two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours (see Julian day). This contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans. The latter convention was adopted on and after 1 January 1925 for astronomical purposes as well, resulting in a discontinuity of 12 hours, or half a day earlier. The instant that was designated December 31.5 GMT in 1924 almanacs became January 1.0 GMT in 1925 almanacs. The term Greenwich Mean Astronomical Time (GMAT) was introduced to unambiguously refer to the previous noon-based astronomical convention for GMT.^[6] The more specific terms UT and UTC do not share this ambiguity, always referring to midnight as zero hours.

Greenwich Mean Time in legislation[link]

Several countries throughout the world legislatively define their local time by explicit reference to Greenwich Mean Time.^[7][8] Some examples are:

• United Kingdom: The Interpretation Act 1978, section 9 — provides that whenever an expression of time occurs in an Act, the time referred to shall (unless otherwise specifically stated) be held to be Greenwich mean time. Under subsection 23(3), the same rule applies to deeds and other instruments.^[3][9]
• Belgium: Decrees of 1946 and 1947 set legal time as one hour ahead of GMT.^[7]
• Republic of Ireland: Standard Time (Amendment) Act, 1971, section 1,^[10] and Interpretation Act 2005, section 18(i).^[11]
• Canada: Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21, section 35(1).^[12]

Time zone[link]

Those countries marked in dark blue on the map above use Western European Summer Time and advance their clock one hour in summer. In the United Kingdom, this is known as British Summer Time (BST); in the Republic of Ireland it is called Irish Standard Time (IST)^[13] — officially changing to GMT in winter. Those countries marked in light blue keep their clocks on UTC/GMT/WET year round.

Discrepancies between legal GMT and geographical GMT[link]

European winter

European summer

Since legal, political, and economic criteria (in addition to purely physical or geographical criteria) are used in the drawing of time zones, it follows that actual time zones do not precisely adhere to meridian lines. The 'GMT' time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, would consist of exactly the area between meridians 7°30'W and 7°30'E. As a result, there are European locales that despite lying in an area with a 'physical' UTC time, actually use another time zone (UTC+1 in particular); contrariwise, there are European areas that use UTC, even though their 'physical' time zone is UTC−1 (e.g., most of Portugal), or even UTC−2 (the westernmost part of Iceland). Actually, because the UTC time zone in Europe is 'shifted' to the west, Lowestoft in Suffolk, East Anglia, England at only 1°45'E is the easternmost settlement in Europe in which UTC is applied. Following is a list of the 'incongruencies':

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 22°30'W ('physical' UTC−2) that use UTC

• The westernmost part of Iceland, incl. the northwest peninsula and its main town of Ísafjörður, which is west of 22°30'W, uses UTC. Bjargtangar, Iceland is the westernmost point in which UTC is applied.

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 7°30'W ('physical' UTC−1) that use UTC

• Canary Islands (Spain)
• Most of Portugal, incl. Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Aveiro, and Coimbra. (Only the easternmost part, incl. cities such as Bragança and Guarda, lies east of 7°30'W.). Portugal has since the Treaty of Windsor (1386, world's oldest diplomatic alliance) always had close ties to Britain, which possibly explains its choice of UTC. The Madeira Islands, even further to the west, also employ UTC. A more likely explanation is that during the mid-1970s, when Portugal was on Central European Time all year round, it did not begin to get light in Lisbon in winter until 8.30 A.M.
• Western part of Ireland, incl. the cities of Cork, Limerick, and Galway. If uninhabited islands or rocks, or both, are to be taken into account then Rockall (Disputed island), at 13°41'W, should also be included.
• Westernmost tip of Northern Ireland, incl. the capital of County Fermanagh, Enniskillen
• Extreme westerly portion of the Outer Hebrides, west of Scotland; for instance, Vatersay, an inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides and the westernmost settlement in the whole of Great Britain, lies at 7°54'W. If uninhabited islands or rocks, or both, are to be taken into account then St Kilda, west of the Outer Hebrides, at 8°58'W, and Rockall (Disputed island), at 13°41'W, should also be included.
• Westernmost island of the Faroe Islands (autonomous region of the Danish Kingdom), Mykines
• Iceland, including Reykjavík

Countries (mostly) between meridians 7°30'W and 7°30'E ('physical' UTC) that use UTC+1

This arch that stretches over an autopista indicates the Prime Meridian in Spain.

• Spain (except for the Canary Islands which use UTC). Parts of Galicia in fact lie west of 7°30'W ('physical' UTC−1), whereas there is no Spanish territory east of 7°30'E ('physical' UTC+1). Spain's time is the direct result of Franco's Presidential Order (published in Boletín Oficial del Estado of 8 March 1940)^[14] abandoning Greenwich UTC time in favour of UTC+1 effective 23:00 16 March 1940. This is indeed an excellent example of the aforementioned political criteria used in the drawing of time zones: the time change was passed "in consideration of the convenience from the national time marching in step according to that of other European countries".^[15][16] The Presidential Order (most likely enacted to be in synchrony with Germany and Italy, with which the Franco regime was unofficially allied) included in its 5th article a provision for its future phase out^[16], which never took place. Due to this political decision Spain is two hours ahead of its local mean time during the summer (one hour ahead in winter), which possibly explains the notoriously late schedule for which the country is known.^[17] However, in Portugal, which is a mere one hour behind Spain, the timetable is quite different.
• Most of France, including the cities of Paris, Marseilles and Lyon. Only small parts of Alsace, Lorraine and Provence are east of 7°30'E ('physical' UTC+1).
• Belgium
• Netherlands
• Luxembourg

See also[link]

• 24-hour watch — 24-hour wristwatch
• Radio clock
• Marine chronometer — synchronised with GMT, and used by ships to calculate their longitude
• Sandringham Time
• Swatch Internet Time — alternative, decimal measure of time
• Western European Summer Time

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Dumortier, J, Hannelore, D, & Loncke, M. (n.d.). "Legal Aspects of Trusted Time services in Europe". AMANO. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
• Howse, D. (1997). Greenwich time and the longitude. London: Philip Wilson.
• Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21. (2005). CanLII. (Canadian statute)
• Interpretation Act 1978. UK Law Statute Database. (UK statute)
• Interpretation Act 2005. British and Irish Legal Information Institute. (Irish statute)
• Myers, J. (2007). History of legal time in Britain. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
• Seago, J.H., & Seidelmann, P. K. (c. 2001). National Legal Requirements for Coordinating with Universal Time. Steve Allen of University of California Observatories. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
• Six pip salute. BBC News. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
• Standard Time Act, 1968. Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General. (Irish statute)
• Standard Time (Amendment) Act, 1971. British and Irish Legal Information Institute. (Irish statute)

External links[link]

• Greenwich Mean Time
• World Time Zone Map with current time
• NIST — World Time Scales
• International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service
• Royal Observatory, Greenwich
• The original BBC World Service GMT time signal in mp3 format
• Rodgers, Lucy (20 October 2009). "At the centre of time". BBC News Online (BBC). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8266883.stm. Retrieved 20 October 2009.