UTC - Universal Coordinated Time
Weather observations and forecasts are usually reported in UTC, which used to be known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), i.e. the local time at the Greenwich meridian (zero degrees longitude). This allows weather observations the world over to have the same time stamp.
Since UTC is ahead of local time in the United States, sometimes weather data will have tomorrow's date, but it still represents today's data (we are not THAT good at forecasting the weather).
UTC is 8 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time (e.g. 0000 UTC is 4 p.m. PST the previous day, 1200 UTC is 4 a.m. PST the same day), 7 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time (e.g. 0000 UTC is 5 p.m. PDT the previous day, 1200 UTC is 5 a.m. PDT the same day).
UTC is "Coordinated Universal Time", or "Universal Time, Coordinated". It is UTC instead of UCT because the abbreviation is based on the initials in French, not English.
Reasonable doubt has been cast on my accuracy. I received the following e-mail.
Greetings-
The following statement appears on your UTC page:
"It is UTC instead of UCT because the abbreviation is based on the initials
in French, not English."
I believe this statement is false. The French abbreviation would be TUC
(adjectives come after nouns in French). I have heard that UTC was chosen
because neither the English nor the French representatives to the
standardization effort would agree to use the "correct" abbreviation for
the others' language. Perhaps you can verify this story and update you
page.
In the interest of accuracy...
-Fred
--
Fred M Jacobson, fmj@blueneptune.com
Dear Dave:
Fred Jacobson is correct. UTC is a compromise between the French and
English initials, apparently when they met to have something that sounded
a little more scientific sounding than "Zulu Time", the congress that met
in England couldn't agree which language acronym to use.
I believe this information may be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica or
in The University of Indiana's Covis or Weather 2010 pages. I'm sorry I
can't be more specific on my sources but I'm not in a position to get into
my own resources at this time.
J. D. Morgan
carlos@cdsnet.net
Hi,
On your web page about Coordinated Universal Time
http://www.aldridge.com/utc.html , you state "If anyone has further comment on
the origin of UTC, please let me know. And please bear in mind that I hate
being wrong."
Since the National Institute of Standards and Technology is probably a fairly
definitive source for information in this area, I would point you to the answer
to question 10 on their Time and Frequency Division's FAQ
http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/faq/faq.htm#10
"Why is UTC used as the acronym for Coordinated Universal Time instead of CUT?
"In 1970 the Coordinated Universal Time system was devised by an international
advisory group of technical experts within the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU). The ITU felt it was best to designate a single abbreviation for
use in all languages in order to minimize confusion. Since unanimous agreement
could not be achieved on using either the English word order, CUT, or the
French word order, TUC, the acronym UTC was chosen as a compromise."
David
BTW, I too hate being wrong, and up until about an hour ago, I also thought
that UCT was the French abbreviation. It was only when I couldn't find the
French words for Coordinated Universal Time and I found the above, that I
recognized that I was wrong. :-(
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Dear Friends:
I've visited your pages -after searching through Altavista- looking for
further explanations on the origin of UTC and I've already found some more
theories.
They can be found at:
http://www.aros.net/~yogi/zulutime.htm
Sorry to disturb you. And apologises about my deplorable English.
Goodbye
Oscar Romero
Aguas de Valencia
SPAIN
If anyone has further comment on the origin of UTC, please let me know. And please bear in mind that I hate being wrong.
Dave
Local examples in the USA are:
EST = UTC - 5 hrs EDT = UTC - 4 hrs
CST = UTC - 6 hrs CDT = UTC - 5 hrs
MST = UTC - 7 hrs MDT = UTC - 6 hrs
PST = UTC - 8 hrs MDT = UTC - 7 hrs
and so on...
With software you can download, you can maintain your local computer or network time to very accurate standards.
Check your local time against our real time USNO Clock.
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