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OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

5/ Other "wide" countries like the US πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ 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!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_

Map of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico showing where DST is observed
Highway sign in Arizona telling drivers that Arizona doesn't follow DST
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OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

6/ Equally odd is the US πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ 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.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_

#geoweirdness

Map of Indiana showing which counties use Eastern time and which use Central
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

7/ There are some places on Earth where three time zones meet in a single point.

The most well known spots are possibly in πŸ‡¦πŸ‡Ί 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.

#geoweirdness

Map of Australian time zones with time zone tripoints
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

8/ Time zones and especially DST rules change frequently. And sometimes with only minimal notice!

Last year there was major confusion in Lebanon πŸ‡±πŸ‡§ due to last-minute (pun intended) disagreement as to wether to follow DST or not.

bbc.com/news/world-middle-east

In 2011 Samoa πŸ‡ΌπŸ‡Έ 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

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_

#geoweirdness

8/ Time zones and especially DST rules change frequently. And sometimes with only minimal notice!

Last year there was major confusion in Lebanon πŸ‡±πŸ‡§ due to last-minute (pun intended) disagreement as to wether to follow DST or not.

bbc.com/news/world-middle-east

In 2011 Samoa πŸ‡ΌπŸ‡Έ 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

Map of the time zones of the Pacific showing the international date line
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

9/ Time can be a very political.

Spain πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Έ 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 β€œlate-night culture,” and are pushing for a change to boost productivity.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_

Portugal πŸ‡΅πŸ‡Ή actually switched to CET in the early 90s but then reverted due to public dissatisfaction

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_

#geoweirdness

9/ Time can be a very political.

Spain πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Έ 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 β€œlate-night culture,” and are pushing for a change to boost productivity.

Map of Europe showing time zones
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

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.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_

#geoweirdness

Map of Antarctica showing time zone used at different stations
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ

11/ βŒ›Time’s almost up on this thread (sorry πŸ˜‚).

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

opencagedata.com/api#timezone

screenshot of the OpenCage geocoding docs explaining the "timezone" annotation
OpenCage πŸ‘‰πŸŒ replied to OpenCage

12/ We hope you enjoyed our look at the #geoweirdness of time zones πŸ•˜πŸ•₯πŸ•’.

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

blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

screenshot of the OpenCage blog page listing all geothreads
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