Eastern Time Zone (North America) facts for kids

Eastern Time Zone (ET) is the time zone for the eastern part of the Americas including the United States, Canada and parts of South America and the Caribbean. ET is five hours behind UTC in winter, which is called Eastern Standard Time (EST). It is four hours behind UTC during summer Daylight saving time, when it is called Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Usage

North America

Canada

In Canada, the following provinces and territories are part of the Eastern Time Zone:

• Ontario (except areas west of Thunder Bay but including Atikokan)
• Quebec (except far eastern Côte-Nord and the Magdalen Is.)
• East-central Nunavut (including part of Melville Pen. and most of Ellesmere and Baffin Is., including Iqaluit; Southampton Island does not observe Daylight saving time)

United States

In the United States, the following states are part of the Eastern Time Zone:

• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Georgia
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia

Parts of several other states use Eastern Time as well:

• nearly all of Florida except for the west border with Alabama
• most of Indiana (all except the Evansville area and the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois)
• eastern half of Kentucky
• all of Michigan except the four counties that border Wisconsin (Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, Menominee).
• the eastern third of Tennessee
• some towns in eastern Alabama, including Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley, observe Eastern Time, although they are officially in the Central Time Zone. The main reason for this is because they are close to Columbus, Georgia, which is in the Eastern Time Zone.

Other countries

The following countries that use Eastern Time Zone include:

• Mexico - the eastern state of Quintana Roo also followed EST for a brief period in the 1990s
• Panama
• Jamaica
• Haiti
• Cuba
• the Bahamas
• Not all Caribbean countries observe Daylight saving time.

South America

In South America this time zone is observed in:

• Colombia
• Ecuador (except Galápagos)
• Peru
• Parts of Brazil:
  • the state of Acre
  • Amazonas - the southwestern region of the state.

Major Metropolitan areas

See also

In Spanish: Horario del este de América del Norte para niños