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Atlantic/Canary time zone

2:37PMWET

WETUTC+0+5 h vs New York (you)

About Atlantic/Canary

Atlantic/Canary is the IANA time zone for Canary Islands in Spain. It currently keeps Western European Standard Time (WET, UTC+0) in winter and Western European Summer Time (WEST, UTC+1) in summer.

Its principal location is Canary at 28.10° N, 15.40° W.

Abbreviations in use: WET, WEST. Offset page: UTC+0.

Rule for future years (POSIX TZ string)

WET0WEST,M3.5.0/1,M10.5.0

The standard time is called WET and is UTC+0. POSIX writes the offset with the opposite sign (west of Greenwich is positive), which is why the string says "0". Daylight saving time is called WEST and is UTC+1. It starts on the last Sunday of March at 01:00 and ends on the last Sunday of October at 02:00, local time. Software that has no full tzdata copy, such as many embedded devices, can use this string directly as the TZ environment variable.

Upcoming transitions

Computed from tzdata 2026f; local times are read on the clock just before each change.

History of Atlantic/Canary since 1970

The record starts with local mean time (UTC−1:02), which ended on February 28, 1922. The first daylight saving time in the record is in 1980.

YearsClocksAbbreviations
1970–1979UTC+0 all yearWET
1980 onwardUTC+0 in winter, UTC+1 in summerWET, WEST

Before 1970

2 offset changes before 1970 in the record:

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

Other zones that keep exactly the same time under the current rules (but have a different history): Atlantic/Faroe, Atlantic/Madeira, Europe/Dublin, Europe/Lisbon, Europe/London.

Convert Canary time

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

Using Atlantic/Canary 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: 'Atlantic/Canary' })

# Python 3.9+
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now(ZoneInfo('Atlantic/Canary'))

// Java
java.time.ZonedDateTime.now(java.time.ZoneId.of("Atlantic/Canary"))

// Go
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("Atlantic/Canary")
time.Now().In(loc)

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'Atlantic/Canary';

# Shell
TZ='Atlantic/Canary' 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 Atlantic/Canary?
UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer (daylight saving time from the last Sunday of March at 1:00 AM to the last Sunday of October at 2:00 AM).
Does Atlantic/Canary observe daylight saving time?
Yes: clocks move one hour forward on the last Sunday of March at 1:00 AM and back on the last Sunday of October at 2:00 AM.
Which countries use Atlantic/Canary?
Spain, according to zone1970.tab in tzdata.

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