Time in Lower Columbia



Time in Lower Columbia is legally divided into three standard time zones covering the sixteen federal states, all of which observe daylight saving time in the summer. Two federal agencies keep official time: the National Standards Office within the Ministry of Transportation keeps civilian time, while the Royal Observatory of Kendall keeps official military time. Their clocks are kept in synchrony with each other, and with those of international timekeeping organizations. Their services, combined with the time zone and daylight saving time regulations, define the legal civil time for all locations in Lower Columbia at all times.

Time zones
The Minister of Transportation has final authority over which regions observe which standard time zones, although it is his responsibility to coordinate such decisions with the states. Likewise, it is his joint decision with the states as to which regions will observe daylight saving time. At present, the three standard time zones are defined by hourly offsets from UTC. Their official names are, from west to east:


 * 1) Western Time Zone
 * 2) Pacific Time Zone
 * 3) Mountain Time Zone

Standard time and daylight saving time
The standard time zones comprise the following states, and have the following UTC offsets during winter and summer:

Daylight saving time
At least some states in Lower Columbia have observed daylight saving time since 1942, and all 16 states have observed DST since 1992. To promote consistent social and economic interactions with both Canada and the United States, Lower Columbia synchronizes its observance of DST with the latter, amending its timekeeping laws to match their American counterparts. As such, Lower Columbia currently begins observing daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March, and DST ends on the first Sunday in November.