America/Winnipeg time zone

8:09AMEST

ESTUTC−5+0 h vs New York (you)

No transitions: America/Winnipeg stays on EST (UTC−5).

About America/Winnipeg

America/Winnipeg is the IANA time zone for EST: Manitoba, ON (northwest) in Canada. It currently keeps Eastern Standard Time (EST, UTC−5) all year.

Its principal location is Winnipeg at 49.88° N, 97.15° W.

Abbreviations in use: EST. Offset page: UTC−5.

Rule for future years (POSIX TZ string)

EST5

The standard time is called EST and is UTC−5. POSIX writes the offset with the opposite sign (west of Greenwich is positive), which is why the string says "5". There is no daylight saving rule: the zone stays on this offset for every year after the end of its explicit transitions. Software that has no full tzdata copy, such as many embedded devices, can use this string directly as the TZ environment variable.

History of America/Winnipeg since 1970

The record starts with local mean time (UTC−6:29), which ended on July 15, 1887. The first daylight saving time in the record is in 1916.

YearsClocksAbbreviations
1970–2025UTC−6 in winter, UTC−5 in summerCST, CDT
2026UTC−6 until March 8, then UTC−5CST, CDT, EST
2027 onwardUTC−5 all yearEST

Before 1970

49 offset changes before 1970 in the record; the first 12 and the last 12:

Changes of the winter (standard) offset: Sunday, March 8, 2026, UTC−6 → UTC−5.

tzdata commits to accuracy from 1970 for every zone (zone1970.tab); earlier entries are historical research and may be incomplete.

Aliases and zones with the same clock

These older or country-specific IDs are links to America/Winnipeg in tzdata. Their pages redirect here: America/Rainy_River, Canada/Central.

Other zones that keep exactly the same time under the current rules (but have a different history): America/Bogota, America/Cancun, America/Eirunepe, America/Guayaquil, America/Jamaica, America/Lima, America/Panama, America/Rio_Branco.

Convert Winnipeg time

Tip: Alt+↑/↓ steps the time by 15 minutes (Shift: one hour). The link keeps the date, time and direction.

Using America/Winnipeg in code

Every major platform reads the same IANA ID. Store instants in UTC and convert with the ID at display time; never store a fixed offset for a place that has daylight saving time.

// JavaScript
new Date().toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'America/Winnipeg' })

# Python 3.9+
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now(ZoneInfo('America/Winnipeg'))

// Java
java.time.ZonedDateTime.now(java.time.ZoneId.of("America/Winnipeg"))

// Go
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("America/Winnipeg")
time.Now().In(loc)

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'America/Winnipeg';

# Shell
TZ='America/Winnipeg' date

Platforms ship their own copy of tzdata and update it on their own schedule. After a rule change, outputs can differ until the platform updates; this page uses tzdata 2026f.

Questions

What is the UTC offset of America/Winnipeg?
UTC−5 all year.
Does America/Winnipeg observe daylight saving time?
No, not under the current rules. The last year with daylight saving time in its record is 2024.
Is America/Rainy_River the same as America/Winnipeg?
Yes. America/Rainy_River and Canada/Central are a link (alias) to America/Winnipeg in tzdata and give the same time since 1970. They remain valid IDs.
Which countries use America/Winnipeg?
Canada, according to zone1970.tab in tzdata.

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