Dakhla, Western Sahara · UTC+1
Convert time from Dakhla
Dakhla occupies a narrow peninsula on Western Sahara’s Atlantic coast, at 23 degrees north, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. The territory has been administered by Morocco since 1975, and its clocks follow Moroccan time: UTC+1 year-round, after Morocco abandoned DST in 2018 in favor of permanent UTC+1. The IANA timezone Africa/El_Aaiun covers the whole territory, named for the administrative capital El Aaiun (Laayoune) further north.
Western Sahara’s timezone history mirrors Morocco’s turbulent DST experiments. Morocco observed and suspended DST multiple times in the 2010s, particularly suspending it during Ramadan to keep iftar (the evening meal breaking the fast) at an earlier clock hour. After years of back-and-forth, Morocco settled on permanent UTC+1 in 2018, and the territory it administers followed.
Kitesurfers, wind, and an hour fast by the sun
Dakhla is now known internationally for kitesurfing, drawing athletes from Europe who come for its reliable Atlantic winds and flat lagoon water. The town’s small size and remote location mean its clock is largely irrelevant to its visitors, who arrive focused on wind forecasts rather than local business hours. But the timezone does create an interesting quirk: Dakhla is geographically at a longitude where UTC+0 would be more solar-accurate, putting it an hour fast by the sun.
Convert 9am Dakhla time to London
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Questions about time in Dakhla
- What timezone is Dakhla in?
- Dakhla uses the IANA timezone
Africa/El_Aaiun. The UTC offset is always UTC+1 - this timezone does not observe daylight saving time. - Does Dakhla observe daylight saving time?
- No. Dakhla does not observe daylight saving time. The UTC offset remains UTC+1 all year round.
- What is the current UTC offset for Dakhla?
- Dakhla is currently at UTC+1.
- What is the time difference between Dakhla and New York?
- Dakhla is currently 5 hours ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Dakhla and Los Angeles?
- Dakhla is currently 8 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Dakhla and Tokyo?
- Dakhla is currently 8 hours behind Tokyo.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Dakhla?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Dakhla is
Africa/El_Aaiun. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Africa/El_Aaiun' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Africa/El_Aaiun')`), or any IANA-compatible library.