The Secretary of Transportation has the power to decide which time zones different regions will use and whether they'll follow daylight saving time. This law decides when daylight saving time starts and ends, if it's used. In the United States, standard time zones and the rules for daylight saving time are set by federal law (15 USC §260). United States Maps in our Store - Order High Resolution Vector and Raster Files It is the mix of the time zone and DST rules, along with the timekeeping services, which calculate the legal civil time for any United States location at any moment. The clocks managed by these services are kept in synchronization with each other as well as with those of other internationally recognized timekeeping organizations. Official and extremely precise timekeeping services (clocks) are presented by 2 federal agencies: NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) (an agency of the Department of Commerce) and UNSO (the United States Naval Observatory). The time zone boundaries and daylight saving time observance are organized by the Department of Transportation. observing DST (daylight saving time) for generally the spring, summer, and fall months. The DST runs from 2 pm on the 2nd Sunday in March to 2 am on the first Sunday in November.Explore US time zone map, Time in the United States of America, by law, is divided into 9 standard time zones covering the American states, territories and other U.S. The Daylight Saving Time (DST) is observed in the whole of US states and territories except in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, US Virgin Island, and Arizona (observed only in Navajo Nation). For instance, Howland Island and Baker Island use UTC-12:00 and are sometimes assigned Anywhere on Earth (AoE). The US also possesses outlying islands which do not observe any of the nine time zones. The US territories observe Samoa Time Zone (American Samoa), Atlantic Time Zone (US Virginia Islands and Puerto Rico), and Chamorro Time Zone (the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam). The state of Alaska observes Alaskan Time Zone (UTC-09:00), while Hawaii and parts of the Aleutian Islands have Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone (UTC-09:00).
For instance, Eastern Time refers to EST or EDT.
The time zones observed by the 48 states use generic names, without highlighting the difference between DST and standard time designations. The DST is observed in all of the contiguous states except Arizona (observed only in the Navajo Nation). Washington, Nevada, California, and parts of Oregon and Idaho observe Pacific Time Zone (UTC-07:00) while the states straddled by the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains’ western quarter have Mountain Time Zone (UTC-06:00). The second time zone on the contiguous US is the Central Standard Time (UTC-05:00), observed fully by ten states and partly by the other ten states occupying the Mississippi Valley, Gulf Coast, and parts of the Great Plains. However, Indiana, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee partially use this time zone. All or most of the 23 states in the eastern US, including those on the Atlantic coast, observe Eastern Time Zone (UTC-04:00). These states fall within four time zones. The contiguous US comprises 48 states located within continental North America. The Department of Transportation regulates the DST and time zone boundaries in the US. The contiguous US observes four time zones, while Hawaii, Alaska, and each of the five territories has its time zone. From west to east, the nine US time zones are Chamorro Standard Time (UTC+10), Samoa Standard Time, Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HST), Alaskan Standard Time (AKST), Pacific Standard Time (PST), Mountain Standard Time, Central Standard Time, Eastern Standard Time (EST), and Atlantic Standard Time (AST). By Law, the United States of America and its territories use nine time zones, with most of the county observing DST (daylight saving time) for much of spring, fall, and summer months.