# Looking for an accurate time zone map. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277 "2017-09-13T21:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/1 "2017-09-13T21:31:32Z")
My Google wizardly is failing me. I easily find generic time zone maps. [https://goo.gl/images/qyA6KK](https://goo.gl/images/qyA6KK) I can’t get Google maps to show specific details. Which towns are on each side of a time zone. I put in “US Time Zones” and Google maps identifies businesses with those words. :rolleyes: A standard map should come up with a long line indicating the time zone border. Trying to plan a car trip East and want to know when we’ll lose an hour of our daylight driving time. One second it’s 3 pm and ten seconds later it’s 4 pm. What are the magic words that I can whisper to get Google Maps to show time zones? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/2 "2017-09-13T21:41:42Z")
Weren’t time zones shown in a road atlas? I used to buy one before making any cross country trips. Google Map supposedly replaced them. I really should pick up the Rand McNally before we leave. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/3 "2017-09-13T22:25:53Z")
Well the ones that aren’t on state boundaries are generally on county boundaries. Wikipedia has a series of articles “Time in {State}”. These describe which counties are in which time zones. You could look up those states which split time zones individually before you enter them. For instance, Kentucky: > **[Time in Kentucky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Kentucky)** > > About 60% of Kentucky lies in the Eastern Time Zone, with the rest in the Central Time Zone, as follows: > Counties to the north and east of this boundary are in the Eastern Time Zone, while counties to the south and west are in the Central Time Zone. 30% of the area in Eastern Time Zone is further west than areas to the south. This progression to the west is further continued into Indiana. > In the IANA time zone database, Kentucky is covered by four time zones, columns marked " \* " contain the da... ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/4 "2017-09-13T22:35:19Z")
And this will be somewhat more convenient - it has a zoomable map, although the detail level isn’t that good: > **[North America Time Zones Map](https://www.1blueplanet.com/world_time_zones/north_america_time_zones.html)** > > North America time zones map, show time zones, current local time in cities and countries, time,travel, international time zones, daylight saving time ETA: This one zooms a little better: > **[World Time Zones - World Time Map with 25 Time Zones](https://www.world-timezone.com/)** > > World Time Zones with interactive time zone maps, current local times, time converter, and daylight maps. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/5 "2017-09-13T23:27:27Z")
Thank you. The 2nd map zooms in great. I knew Nashville was central time. I see now that Eastern time starts at the edge of Chattanooga TN. Going to work must be an adventure. You live in the Central zone and you have to be at work at 8 Eastern. That’s 7AM for you. But you do get home at 5 pm. 4 pm your time. You can relax in the yard, cook burgers while everyone else is stuck in a cubicle. We’re planning to drive 8 hours and stop at a hotel in the new time zone. Then we’ll be ok for the rest of the trip. Chattanooga would be a logical place to reserve a room. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/6 "2017-09-14T01:26:23Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Trying to plan a car trip East and want to know when we’ll lose an hour of our daylight driving time. …never? You don’t have to change your habits just because a government line told you to change your clock. If you stay at roughly the same latitude, there’s always the same amount of daylight. > [@aceplace57](#): > > Going to work must be an adventure. You live in the Central zone and you have to be at work at 8 Eastern. That’s 7AM for you. Or you just live on eastern time, or both times simultaneously. Time zone boundaries are an inconvenience for people who live near them, but that’s because it’s annoying to always have to specify what time someone is talking about, not because there are magic hours popping out of nowhere to make your day longer or shorter. (Also, my understanding from other threads is that typical work hours are later in the east than in the central time zone. So it may be that “your time” is lined up exactly with “their time” and you just call it different things.) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/7 "2017-09-14T04:44:47Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > …never? Actually, now that I think about it, you’ll lose around a half hour of daylight while driving to Chattanooga from Little Rock. But it will be gradual, and would still happen if Chattanooga was on central time. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/8 "2017-09-14T12:59:15Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Time zone boundaries are an inconvenience for people who live near them, but that’s because it’s annoying to always have to specify what time someone is talking about, not because there are magic hours popping out of nowhere to make your day longer or shorter. I find a surprising number of people struggle with this idea. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/9 "2017-09-14T13:59:24Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Time zone boundaries are an inconvenience for people who live near them, but that’s because it’s annoying to always have to specify what time someone is talking about, not because there are magic hours popping out of nowhere to make your day longer or shorter. You should try living in Arizona. [ul] [li]The state is in the Mountain time zone and does not observe DST.[/li][li]Except the [Navajo Nation](https://www.google.com/search?q=navajo+reservation+map&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8) reservation, which does.[/li][li]Except the [Hopi Nation](https://www.google.com/search?q=hopi+reservation+map&oq=hopi+reservation+map&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i7i30k1l2j0i30k1.279399.280516.0.282459.4.4.0.0.0.0.206.482.3j0j1.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.4.480...0i13k1.irsDXkJSZPI) reservation, entirely _within_ the Navajo reservation, which does not.[/li][/ul] A tourist guide for the area recommends that you “ask locally.” We forgot bullet two once and arrived at the [Hubbell trading post](https://www.nps.gov/hutr/index.htm) in Ganado after it had closed for the day. I’ve learned to put my smart phone on airplane mode because its time is unreliable and the coverage is spotty anyway, making power consumption an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/10 "2017-09-14T14:03:20Z")
My company has an office in Phoenix and it’s annoying trying to schedule meetings because Arizona doesn’t do DST. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-an-accurate-time-zone-map/796277/11 "2017-09-14T19:42:21Z")
The boundary between the Central and Mountain time zones in South Dakota on I-90 used to run a little bit west of Murdo which is about in the middle of Jones County but, several years ago, the government decided to move it several miles to the west to the county border. This made sense as far as lining it up with the boundary coming from the south which follows the western borders of Todd and Mellette Counties but now it takes a several mile jog to the east on the northern border of Jones County to rejoin the original boundary. It then goes a few miles north to join the Missouri River between Pierre and Fort Pierre and then follows the river to the northern border of the state. It then takes a several mile jog to the west along the border before going into North Dakota. Fun fact: Since Pierre and Fort Pierre are right on opposite sides of the boundary and bars cannot legally sell alcohol after 2am there is usually a mass exodus from Pierre in the Central time zone to Fort Pierre in the Mountain time zone to gain another hour of drinking time.