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- Pacific
PT · UTC−8 standard · UTC−7 daylight · 2 states fully, 3 partly · Los Angeles, Seattle
Pacific Time Zone map
The Pacific Time Zone is the West Coast: California and Washington in full, almost all of Oregon and Nevada, and the Idaho panhandle. Three hours behind Eastern, it is the last of the four contiguous zones to reach any given hour.
Offset and daylight saving
Pacific Standard Time (PST) is UTC−8 and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) is UTC−7, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. Every part of the zone observes daylight time. During those eight months Pacific time equals Arizona time, since Arizona stays on UTC−7; the two diverge again in winter. California voters approved permanent daylight time in 2018, but a change requires Congress, so the clocks still shift.
States fully in the Pacific zone
Only two states are entirely Pacific, but one of them is California, so the zone holds 47,243,504 people in those two states alone — more than the whole Mountain zone.
| State | Code | Capital | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | CA | Sacramento | 39,538,223 |
| Washington | WA | Olympia | 7,705,281 |
States partly in the Pacific zone
Nevada and Oregon are Pacific in all but one small area each, so on state-level maps they are shaded Pacific. Idaho is the reverse: the majority of its area and population is Mountain, and only the panhandle north of the Salmon River — about a fifth of the state, oriented toward Spokane — is Pacific.
| State | Part in this zone | Rest of the state |
|---|---|---|
| Nevada | Whole state except West Wendover, including Las Vegas, Reno and Carson City | West Wendover, on the Utah line, is Mountain |
| Oregon | Whole state except most of Malheur County, including Portland, Salem and Eugene | Malheur County around Ontario is Mountain |
| Idaho | Northern panhandle north of the Salmon River: Coeur d'Alene, Moscow, Lewiston, Sandpoint | Southern Idaho, including Boise, is Mountain |
Major cities on Pacific time
| City | Population (2020) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles, CA | 3,898,747 |
| San Diego, CA | 1,386,932 |
| San Jose, CA | 1,013,240 |
| San Francisco, CA | 873,965 |
| Seattle, WA | 737,015 |
| Portland, OR | 652,503 |
| Las Vegas, NV | 641,903 |
| Fresno, CA | 542,107 |
| Sacramento, CA | 524,943 |
Oakland, Long Beach, Bakersfield, Tacoma, Spokane, Reno and Salem are also Pacific. Four of the ten largest US cities are in this zone, all of them in California.
Where the eastern boundary runs
From the Canadian border the line follows the crest of the Bitterroot Range along the Montana–Idaho state line to the Salmon River, then turns west along the Salmon River to the Oregon line. It follows the Idaho–Oregon line down the Snake River (except that Ontario, Oregon and the rest of Malheur County keep Mountain time to match Boise across the river), then the Idaho–Nevada line, the Nevada–Utah line (except West Wendover, which keeps Mountain time to match Wendover, Utah), and the Nevada–Arizona line down the Colorado River to Mexico. The Hoover Dam straddles the boundary: the Nevada end is Pacific, the Arizona end Mountain.
Converting from Pacific
- Noon Pacific is 3 pm Eastern, 2 pm Central, 1 pm Mountain, 11 am Alaska, 10 am Hawaii (9 am during daylight time).
- Noon PST is 20:00 UTC; noon PDT is 19:00 UTC.
- A 9 am East Coast market open is 6:30 am in Los Angeles. Prime-time television scheduled for 8 pm Eastern is re-aired at 8 pm Pacific.
Other zones
Eastern · Central · Mountain · Alaska · Hawaii-Aleutian · all zones
Region maps for the same area: Pacific division, Pacific Northwest, West. See also the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range maps.