Chelyabinsk, Russia · UTC+5 ☆

Chelyabinsk is an industrial city in the Southern Urals of Russia, close to the Kazakhstan border. It runs on Asia/Yekaterinburg: UTC+5, year-round. Russia abolished seasonal clock changes in 2014.

At 55 degrees north latitude, Chelyabinsk has extreme seasonal daylight variation. June evenings are light until past 10pm. December mornings are dark until after 9:30am.

The 2013 meteor

At 9:20am local time on February 15, 2013, a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere above the Chelyabinsk region. The superbolide, traveling at approximately 19 kilometers per second, exploded in the atmosphere at an altitude of about 23 kilometers, releasing energy equivalent to roughly 30 Hiroshima bombs. The shockwave blew out windows across thousands of buildings, and about 1,500 people were injured, mostly by flying glass.

Because so many Russians had dashboard cameras in their cars, the event was captured from multiple angles simultaneously. The footage spread globally within hours, making it the most documented atmospheric entry event in history. The exact time, 9:20am Chelyabinsk time (04:20 UTC), is precisely recorded.

The Ural industrial belt

Chelyabinsk is one of Russia’s major industrial cities, known for steel production, metallurgy, and defense manufacturing. The Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, built in the 1930s, produced significant numbers of T-34 tanks during World War Two. The city’s industries are still closely connected to the defense sector.

Chelyabinsk sits on the eastern slopes of the Urals, at the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia. Yekaterinburg to the north shares the same UTC+5 timezone.

The time difference between Chelyabinsk and London is five hours in winter, four in summer when the UK observes BST.

Sources

• IANA Time Zone Database
• Chelyabinsk Regional Government
• NASA - Chelyabinsk Meteor Event