Eastern European Time

This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Eastern European Time is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:

Time zones of Europe:  blue Western European Time (UTC+0)  Western European Summer Time (UTC+1) red Central European Time (UTC+1)  Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) yellow Eastern European Time (UTC+2)  Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3) green Moscow Time (UTC+3)  Moscow Summer Time (UTC+4)  Light colours indicate countries that do not observe summer time: Algeria, Iceland and Morocco
Time zones of Europe:
blue Western European Time (UTC+0)
Western European Summer Time (UTC+1)
red Central European Time (UTC+1)
Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
yellow Eastern European Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
green Moscow Time (UTC+3)
Moscow Summer Time (UTC+4)
Light colours indicate countries that do not observe summer time: Algeria, Iceland and Morocco

Eastern European Time (EET) is one of the names of UTC+2 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in some European, North African, and Middle Eastern countries. Most of them also use Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3) as a summer daylight saving time.

Contents

Usage

One country uses Eastern European Time all the year:

The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time during the winter only:

Moscow used EET in years 1922-30 and 1991-92. In Poland this time was used in years 1918-22.

In time of World War II Germany implemented MET (CET) in east occupied territories.

Anomalies

Since political, in addition to purely geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones, it follows that actual time zones do not precisely adhere to meridian lines. The EET (UTC+2) time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, would consist of exactly the area between meridians 22 30' E and 37 30' E. As a result, there are European locales that despite lying in an area with a "physical" UTC+2 time, actually use another time zone; contrariwise, there are European areas that have gone for UTC+2, even though their "physical" time zone is different from that. Following is a list of such "incongruencies":

Areas that use Eastern European Time (UTC+2)

Areas west of 22 30' E ("physical" UTC+1) that use UTC+2

Areas east of 37 30' E ("physical" UTC+3) that use UTC+2

  • The easternmost part of Ukraine, incl. the cities of Luhansk, Donetsk, and Mariupol. The town of Melovoje, Luhansk Oblast, on the Ukrainian-Russian border, is the easternmost city in geographical Europe that applies UTC+2 (if political Europe, which includes the Asian part of Turkey, is to be considered, then that title goes to Şemdinli; see above)

Areas geographically located within UTC+2 longitudes

Areas east of 22 30' E ("physical" UTC+2) that use UTC+1

  • The easternmost part of the Republic of Macedonia, including the city of Strumica
  • The absolutely easternmost part of Serbia, in the Pirot District, including the city of Pirot
  • The extreme easternmost tips of Hungary and Slovakia, bordering to the north and south respectively the Ukrainian Transcarpathian Oblast (Zakarpattia Oblast), a bit to the east of the Vásárosnamény, Hungary - Uzhhorod, Ukraine (both at 22 18' E) line
  • The easternmost part of Poland, including the cities of Lublin and Białystok
  • The extreme northeast of Sweden, in the Norrbotten province, including the cities of Kalix and Haparanda
  • The northeast of Norway, lying north of Finland, roughly coinciding with the county of Finnmark; for instance Vadsø, the capital of Finnmark, has a longitude of 23 49′ E. Actually, the easternmost town in Norway, Vardø, lies at 30 51′ E, which is so far east, so as to be east even of the central meridian of EET (UTC+2), i.e. east of Istanbul and Alexandria. The Norwegian-Russian border (incl. border passings such as Kirkenes) is the only place where CET (UTC+1) borders Moscow time (UTC+3), resulting in a two (2) hours time change for the passenger crossing that border. More so, there exists a "tri-zone" point (where UTC+1, UTC+2, and UTC+3 meet) at the Norway-Finland-Russia tripoint (look for the town of Nautsi in this map). Actually, it is interesting to perform the following mental experiment when looking at this map: Go to the westernmost point of the red area (the Jäniskoski-Niskakoski area); this belongs to Russian jurisdiction, hence the time there is UTC+3. Then, take a northeastern (NE) direction (that is an eastwards direction); you will soon be crossing into Finnish territory, thus moving to the UTC+2 time zone. Continuing in that direction, you will eventually reach the Finland-Norway border and enter Norway, thus passing into the UTC+1 time zone. So, moving in a (north-)easterly direction, you will actually be moving from UTC+3 to UTC+2 to UTC+1!

Areas west of 37 30' E ("physical" UTC+2) that use UTC+3

  • Practically all European Russia west of Moscow; This includes the chunk of land from Murmansk all the way south to Belgorod, including the cities of St. Petersburg, Novgorod, and Pskov, to name only a few. (The westernmost point of contiguous Russia, near Lavry, Pskov Oblast, 27 19' E, is actually the westernmost point in Europe where UTC+3 is applied.) To the above should be added the city of Anapa, at the westernmost tip of the Krasnodar Krai near the entrance to the Sea of Azov, at 37 22' E

Major metropolitan areas

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 8 August 2008, at 07:30.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Eastern European Time".

The URL for this specific entry is:

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.