Understanding
Greenwich Mean Time
(GMT)

What is...

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
or
Universal Time (UT)
or
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

anyway?

Confused already? Not to worry. I think I can clear out the cobwebs!

So what is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)? Or even Universal Time (UT), for that matter? Well, according to Wikipedia, GMT is a what they call solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London.

It is also used to refer to the time zone of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Universal Time (UT) is what the star gazers (astrologers and N.A.S.A.) use in their technical fields, which is basically the same as UTC. UT is also referred to as Zulu Time.

Note: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is now becoming the worldwide standard time used, instead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

What it boils down to is this:

They are all the SAME time!

Yup. It’s that simple! GMT, UTC, and UT (or Zulu). All the same.

One uses two numbers, and the others use a 2400 military clock. Guess they figured everyone needed a standard world clock to look at, but in the mean time, they just confused the crap out of us!! (Ok, so maybe I’m alone in that!)

If you live in North America, like me, I have tried to make things simple for you. In the tables below, you will see a break down of the time zone abbreviations, and then a table with all the times broken down for you.

In order to convert Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Universal Time (UT) to local time, you need to either add or subtract hours from it, depending on where you live. Anyone west of the zero prime meridian to the international date line (includes all of North and South America) will subtract hours. Anyone east of the zero prime meridian to the international date line (includes all of Asia and most of Europe) will add hours.

NOTE: Not all states observe Daylight Savings.
Keep that in mind when converting your local time.

*Indicates time is for the previous day.

Here are some maps I got off worldatlas.com to try and make things easier. Click on the picture to go to the page they came from, or click here to go to worldatlas.com’s home page. (They have some GREAT maps!)

This is an up-close view of the International Dateline.
You can see it doesn't actually go in a straight line through the world.

This next picture is of the entire world. You can see the zero prime meridian going straight across that I talked about before. On the left you can see where the Greenwich Mean Time originates in Greenwich, England.

Understanding Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Universal Time (UT) really isn't that complicated once you understand how it works, and where you are in relation to it. I hope I helped clear things up a little for you!

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