Alaska Time Zone facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Alaska Time Zone |
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|---|---|
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| UTC offset | |
| AKST | UTC−09:00 |
| AKDT | UTC−08:00 |
| Current time | |
| 12:43, June 5, 2025 (AkT) () | |
| Observance of DST | |
| DST is observed throughout this time zone. | |
The Alaska Time Zone is a special area that helps people in most of Alaska know what time it is. It's one of the nine official time zones in the United States. This time zone is usually nine hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC is like the world's main clock.
When it's daylight saving time in Alaska, the clocks move forward one hour. So, during that period, the Alaska Time Zone is eight hours behind UTC. This change helps make the evenings feel longer in summer.
The time in this zone is based on the sun's position at a specific line of longitude called the 135th meridian west. This line runs through the southeastern part of Alaska.
Most of Alaska uses this time zone. The only part that doesn't is the western Aleutian Islands. They use the Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone, which is one hour earlier.
The biggest city in the Alaska Time Zone is Anchorage, Alaska. The area around Anchorage is also the largest city area in this time zone.
Since 2007, the clocks in Alaska change for daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March. At 2:00 AM, they jump forward to 3:00 AM. Then, on the first Sunday in November, they go back from 2:00 AM to 1:00 AM. This means Alaska spends most of the year using daylight saving time.
History of Alaska Time Zones
Over the years, the "Alaska Time Zone" has meant different things. In the early 1900s, a time zone based on UTC−10:00 covered much of central Alaska. Today, the Alaska Time Zone (since 1983) is based on UTC−09:00 and covers almost all of the state.
The Standard Time Act of 1918 was a law that allowed the government to set up time zones. Back then, the United States Standard Alaska Time was set as UTC−10:00. Before 1967, some people called this "Central Alaska Standard Time" (CAT) or "Alaska Standard Time" (AST).
In 1966, a new law called the Uniform Time Act changed the UTC−10:00 zone's name to Alaska-Hawaii Standard Time (AHST). This change happened on April 1, 1967. Later, in 1983, this zone was renamed Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time. This happened because most of Alaska moved into a different time zone.
Before 1983, the time zone that is now the Alaska Time Zone (UTC−09:00) was known as the Yukon Time Zone. It used Yukon Standard Time (YST). This zone included Canada's Yukon Territory and a small part of Alaska, like Yakutat. The Alaska Panhandle was in the Pacific Time Zone. Most of interior Alaska was on UTC−10:00. Places like Nome and the Aleutian Islands used to be on Bering Standard Time or UTC−11:00.
In 1975, the Yukon Territory switched to Pacific Standard Time. This left Yakutat as the only place on land in the Yukon Time Zone.
In 1983, Alaska's four time zones were combined into just two: one based on UTC−09:00 and another on UTC−10:00. The Yukon Time Zone, which was based on UTC−09:00, was then renamed the Alaska Time Zone in 1984.
Why Time Can Seem Different in Alaska
The Alaska Time Zone covers a very wide area of Alaska. It includes all of the state except for the very western parts of the Aleutian Islands. Time zones are usually about 15 degrees wide.
The UTC−09:00 time zone matches the sun's time at 135 degrees west longitude. This line is roughly near Juneau, which is in the southeastern part of Alaska.
Because Alaska is so wide, some places in the western part of the Alaska Time Zone are very far from this 135-degree line. For example, the westernmost places in the Alaska Time Zone are about 34.5 degrees away from the 135-degree line. This means their local sun time can be more than 2 hours and 17 minutes different from the clock time. So, if it's noon by the clock, the sun might still be very low in the sky, as if it's only 9:42 AM.
When daylight saving time is used in the summer, this difference becomes even bigger. For example, on a summer day at noon by the clock, the sun's time in the far western parts of the Alaska Time Zone might be only 8:42 AM. That's almost 3 hours and 18 minutes behind the clock.
Most people don't notice this much because these far western areas are mostly empty. Also, in Alaska, the days are very long in summer and very short in winter. This makes the exact sunrise and sunset times less important than in places closer to the equator.
In Anchorage, visitors are often surprised to see the sun set very late, like at 11:41 PM, during the summer. This is because Anchorage is further west (at 150 degrees west longitude) than the 135-degree line. So, Anchorage is already about one hour behind the official time zone's sun time. When daylight saving time is added, it creates a two-hour difference between the clock time and the actual sun time. Some locals even call this "double daylight time."
In Fairbanks, the sun can set past midnight on the clock during summer. Even without daylight saving time, there are interesting effects. For example, in Nome during the shortest day of winter, the sun might not rise until after 12:00 PM (noon) by the clock.
Alaska is almost as wide as the entire lower 48 United States. Because of this, using only two time zones for the whole state can cause some parts to feel "off." Alaska would naturally fit into five time zones. However, for practical reasons, the state uses only two time zones. This leads to the time differences mentioned above.
Cities
See also
In Spanish: Tiempo de Alaska para niños
- Time in Alaska
- Time zone
- Effects of time zones on North American broadcasting
Sources
- The official U.S. time for the Alaska Time Zone: https://converttimezone.org/#:~:text=Alaska%20Standard%20Time-,UTC/GMT%20%2D9%3A00,-AKDT
