• NateNate60@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    The name causes confusion. Let me give you this example. What time UTC would “17:00 PT” be?

    That question depends now not only on what time of year it is, but also where. “Pacific Time” now no longer uniquely identifies a single timekeeping scheme.

    • VAK@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      What I understood was PT is UTC-7, PDT is UTC-7 and PST is UTC-8, am I right? I am guessing in Canada you all were refering to PST and PDT as ‘pacific time’ and that causes confusion?

      • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        “Pacific Time” means “whatever the civil time is in the Pacific Time Zone, accounting for daylight saving time”. So that would be 23:04 (UTC-7) as of writing.

        If today’s date were instead 30 December, “Pacific Time” would be 22:04 (UTC-8) in Washington, Oregon, and California, while it would be 23:04 (UTC-7) in British Columbia and Yukon. Both would be called “Pacific Time” despite not being the same time, and both being on standard time.

        • VAK@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Ah right, got it.

          Weird not to have any coordination at all. Another example I found - CST can simultaneously mean Central Standard Time (North America), China Standard Time, or Cuba Standard Time.