Honolulu, United States · UTC-10 ☆

Honolulu runs on Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, UTC-10, year-round. When the US adopted the Uniform Time Act in 1966, Hawaii exercised the opt-out and has not observed daylight saving since 1967.

At UTC-10, Honolulu is 5 hours behind Los Angeles in winter and 3 hours behind in summer when the mainland shifts to daylight saving. The math is different every six months, and Hawaiians have learned to do it automatically.

Why Hawaii skipped daylight saving

Hawaii’s argument against daylight saving is geographic and cultural. At 21 degrees North latitude, day length varies only about 2.5 hours between solstices. The sun rises between 5:50am and 7:10am year-round, and sets between 5:55pm and 7:15pm. There is no compelling solar argument for shifting clocks.

Additionally, Hawaiian tourism runs on outdoor activities from sunrise to sunset, and those activities do not benefit from artificial clock manipulation. The agricultural sector, particularly sugar cane historically and pineapple, ran on field schedules tied to actual daylight.

The Pearl Harbor timezone puzzle

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941, at 7:48am Hawaii time. In Washington, it was 1:18pm. In Tokyo, it was 3:18am on December 8. The timezone arithmetic, familiar to every historian of the attack, is embedded in how the event is discussed across different national perspectives.

Convert 9am Honolulu time to other cities.

Sources

• IANA Time Zone Database
• State of Hawaii Office of Planning
• Prange, Gordon W. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. McGraw-Hill, 1981.