Colombo, Sri Lanka · UTC+5:30
Convert time from Colombo
Colombo is in the Sri Lanka Standard Time timezone (Asia/Colombo, UTC+5:30). The half-hour offset aligns with India and has remained unchanged since independence in 1948.
Sri Lanka Standard Time sits at UTC+5:30, the same offset as Delhi and India. This isn’t coincidence. Under British colonial rule, Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known) used Indian Standard Time. After independence, the country kept the offset.
The 30-minute experiment and its reversal
In 1996, Sri Lanka briefly moved its clocks forward by 30 minutes to UTC+6, creating a separate Sri Lanka Standard Time distinct from India. The stated reasons included energy savings and better alignment with business hours in East Asia. The change was reversed in 2006, moving back to UTC+5:30. The IANA identifier Asia/Colombo records both shifts. Sri Lanka tried a unique clock and decided the coordination costs with India outweighed the theoretical benefits.
Colombo sits at 6 degrees north latitude, close enough to the equator that sunrise and sunset are almost constant year-round: around 6am and 6pm throughout the year, shifting by only about 40 minutes between solstices. Daylight saving would accomplish essentially nothing here. The city’s colonial-era streets and Dutch-built fortifications are lit by a sun that keeps a reliable schedule regardless of what the government has declared.
Convert 9am Colombo time to London
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database
- Department of Meteorology, Sri Lanka
- De Silva, K.M. A History of Sri Lanka. University of California Press, 1981.
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Questions about time in Colombo
- What timezone is Colombo in?
- Colombo uses the IANA timezone
Asia/Colombo. The UTC offset is always UTC+5:30 - this timezone does not observe daylight saving time. - Does Colombo observe daylight saving time?
- No. Colombo does not observe daylight saving time. The UTC offset remains UTC+5:30 all year round.
- What is the current UTC offset for Colombo?
- Colombo is currently at UTC+5:30.
- What is the time difference between Colombo and New York?
- Colombo is currently 9 hours 30 minutes ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Colombo and London?
- Colombo is currently 4 hours 30 minutes ahead of London.
- What is the time difference between Colombo and Los Angeles?
- Colombo is currently 12 hours 30 minutes ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Colombo and Tokyo?
- Colombo is currently 3 hours 30 minutes behind Tokyo.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Colombo?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Colombo is
Asia/Colombo. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Asia/Colombo' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Asia/Colombo')`), or any IANA-compatible library.