British Ex-Pat Questions the Strange Borders of Time Zones in the United States
British ex-patLaurence BrownofLost in the Pond quite appropriately questioned the bizarre borders of time zones in the United States, noting how his home country only had one time zone.
Time zones in the United States can be a bit of a culture shock for somebody who grew up in Britain. Firstly you should know I come from a country where there is just one time zone. If I were to drive from my hometown of Grimsby to I don't know, the Southwest coast of Wales I will have driven through two countries, seeing signposts in two different languages, and the time will be the same in my destination as it was in the place that I started.
He focused particularly on differing time zones within the same states. This includes Idaho, Oregon, Illinois, and Indiana. Brown was most familiar with the last two as he had lived in both areas.
I have learned that the time zones in this country are a little odd the first example that I'm going to give you actually involves the two states that I've lived in, Indiana and Illinois. For context Illinois, where I currently live is entirely on Central time for those of you not in the know that is one hour behind Eastern Standard Time and is 6 hours behind Greenwich meantime which is what we're on in Britain. Most of Indiana is on Eastern Standard Time, however there are two portions of Indiana that are on Central time just like Illinois. Southwest Indiana and Northwest Indiana.
He also addresses Daylight Savings Time, the disparity among nations as to what date that it actually happens, and those states that abstain, Hawai'i and Arizona, with the exception of land dedicated to the Navajo Nation.
America is going to put its clocks forward on March the 9th Britain meanwhile doesn't change things until March 30th so for me there's always a 3-week window in which I completely forget about this disparity when contacting people back in Britain...there are two states that decided we're not going to take part in daylight savings, that's for you idiots" and that's Arizona and Hawaii.