The United Kingdom belongs to Western European Time or WET for its acronym in English, a time slot that you will find explained in the following sections. Also, below we show you the time difference existing between London and some of the most important countries in the world so you can travel to the British capital with complete peace of mind.
Below you have an index with all the points that we are going to deal with in this article.
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UK Time Zone
Europe is divided into different time zones according to the hours of sunshine that each country has throughout the year. In Europe, a total of five time zones are differentiated, of which the United Kingdom belongs to Western European Time, in English Western European Times, usually abbreviated as WET.
The WET time zone coincides with Coordinated Universal Time or +0 UTC (Coordinated universal time) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which corresponds to the winter time of the countries included in this time zone.
In the United Kingdom, including England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as mentioned above, GMT has been used since 1847 in England and since 1916 in Northern Ireland.
What do the acronyms AM and PM stand for?
The abbreviations AM / am and PM / pm mean a.m y post meridian respectively, both terms from Latin. The first means before noon, while the second refers to afternoon. This way of displaying the hours is used in the United Kingdom because in this country they follow the 12 hour time system.
In this system, the measurement of the total of the day, that is, the total 24 hours, is divided into two periods: the period before noon (AM) and the period after noon (PM).
In this way, the numbering begins at 12 am acting as 0 and is followed by 1, 2, 3 ... and so on until 11, the time from which it starts counting from 12 pm In any case, to mark 12 in the morning, the abbreviation Md (noon) and, by 12 at night, Mn (midnight).
All this means that if you come from a country where the 24-hour system is used (eg Spain) and you travel to the United Kingdom or one of the countries that use the 12-hour system (eg. Ireland), you will have to get used to the times being shown in the AM or PM format, to the inhabitants of the country telling you the time following this format and to telling them, if necessary, adapting to their system. Otherwise, it is very likely that you will not understand yourself very well.
We put a example so that this way of telling the exact time is better understood: imagine that in Spain it is 22:10 pm, a time slot that falls after noon. How would you find this time in the UK? If your answer was 10:10 pm, then you are correct. If, on the other hand, in Spain it were 10:10 in the morning, the clocks there would show 10:10 am
Summer schedule
The United Kingdom and the countries included in this time zone advance the time annually to adapt to daylight saving time between 1:00 am on the last Sunday in March and 1:00 am on the last Sunday in October.
In this way, the Western European Summer Time or WEST (UTC + 1). Other countries included in this time zone are Portugal, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, although the latter is the only one that does not go to UTC + 1 in summer. The Canary Islands (Spain) also use the UTC + 0 time zone.
Time changes by cities
In the following table we show you the main world cities along with the time difference that exists between the United Kingdom and the same:
| City | Time difference | What time would it be in your city if in London was it 13:30? |
| Madrid (Spain) | -1 hour | 14:30 |
| Los Angeles (USA) | -8 hours | 5:30 |
| New York (USA.) | -5 hours | 8:30 |
| Bogota Colombia) | -6 hours | 7:30 |
| Lima Peru) | -6 hours | 7:30 |
| Buenos Aires, Argentina) | -4 hours | 9:30 |
| Sucre (Bolivia) | -5 hours | 8:30 |
| São Paulo (Brazil) | -4 hours | 9:30 |
| Santiago, Chile) | -4 hours | 9:30 |
| San Jose Costa Rica) | -7 hours | 6:30 |
| Havana Cuba) | -5 hours | 8:30 |
| Quito, Ecuador) | -6 hours | 7:30 |
| Galapagos (Ecuador) | -7 hours | 6:30 |
| San Salvador, El Salvador) | -7 hours | 6:30 |
| Guatemala City (Guatemala) | -7 hours | 6:30 |
| Tegucigalpa (Honduras) | -7 hours | 6:30 |
| Mexico, DF (Mexico) | -6 hours | 7:30 |
| Managua Nicaragua) | -7 hours | 6:30 |
| Panama (Panama) | -6 hours | 7:30 |
| Asuncion, Paraguay) | -5 hours | 8:30 |
| Santo Domingo Dominican Republic) | -5 hours | 8:30 |
| Montevideo, Uruguay) | -4 hours | 9:30 |
| Caracas (Venezuela) | -5,5 hours | 8:00 |
| Tokyo (Japan) | +8 hours | 21:30 |
If you want to know the exact UK live date and time, we advise you to use a time zone converter like the one you'll find by clicking this link.
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