# Time at the South Pole

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-at-the-south-pole/211178>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 3, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-at-the-south-pole/211178 "2003-11-03T16:52:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-at-the-south-pole/211178/1 "2003-11-03T16:52:32Z")

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There is a research station at the south pole (manned by the US?).

What is the local time there? All time zones converge at the poles so I assume its Washington time.

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-at-the-south-pole/211178/2 "2003-11-03T17:08:19Z")

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Presumably they use GMT. That would make things simpler for scientists.

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**Author:** ![DoubleJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DoubleJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoubleJ)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-at-the-south-pole/211178/3 "2003-11-03T17:10:56Z")

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Apparently there are no hard and fast rules: [http://www.statoids.com/taq.html](http://www.statoids.com/taq.html)

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**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-at-the-south-pole/211178/4 "2003-11-03T17:13:24Z")

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I sent a similar question to Cecil once. “What time is it at the North Pole”

It never got answered. ☹

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**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-at-the-south-pole/211178/5 "2003-11-03T19:26:42Z")

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The South Pole runs on the same time zone as New Zealand, since most incoming flights come from there. See [here.](http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqztimeatpoles.htm) Other places in Antarctica would, I assume, use their longitude to determine their time zone; but obivously this wouldn’t work for the South Pole.