What’s the Time, Mr Mexico?

Mexican time is changing! They currently have 4 time zones:

PST (Pacific standard time) GMT-8 (which is just Tijuana)
EST (eastern) GMT-7
CST (central) GMT-6
MST (mountain) GMT-5

Here is a map (complete with ticking times) showing these. Or a more fixed one below if you prefer.

So what’s the problem?

Daylight saving is the problem!

Most of us forget/are confused by it/just let our phones do their thing and wake up feeling slightly less/more well rested depending on which way they’re moving. (Just remember: Spring Forward, Fall Back.)

In other words, when daylight saving starts (in the summer which frankly is confusing because there is already more sunlight then so why is it called ‘saving’) then you wind the clock forward an hour, losing one, and you wind it back again in the fall (autumn) meaning you live the same hour twice, to help make better use of the natural daylight.

Then there is the confusion of who does it and who doesn’t. Arizona, USA for example opted out of DST. Except for the Navajo Nation who opted in.

Who should we thank for this confounding thing? Some say the USA’s Benjamin Franklin, some say NZ’s George Hudson, some say the UK’s William Willett, some say “I have no idea who two of those three people are, tell me something useful?!”

Back to the Mexico problem

Mexico is cancelling DST from 2023. Which isn’t the worst thing ever given the confusion (see above)

The problem is… not all of Mexico is going to. Some border towns are not not going to do DST.

Wait, now I’m confused.

The ten municipalities bordering the USA have decided to stay synched with their American neighbors, presumably to avoid confusion with border crossing.

Acuna
Anahuac
Juarez
Matamoros
Mexicali
Nuevo Laredo
Ojinaga
Piedras Negras
Reynosa
Tijuana

So all of these will still apply DST, which means it will look something like this:

When is this all happening?

Well, the no-more-DST starts in April 2023 when the rest of Mexico just won’t wind their clocks forward.

The clocks will still wind forward in those 10 places though. Which, for you, might mean confusion if you’re heading into any airports along the border area. Like MMCS/Ciudad Juárez International.

Some fun time zone facts

If asked which country has the most time zones, most probably guess the USA or Russia. Both actually “only” have 11 though. The top spot goes to France with a whopping 13 different zones (ok, they own random bits of land all over the world so not really a fair game).

Next up are the countries with 9, which includes Australia, Antartica and the UK. Yup, the UK boast a fair few ‘unattached’ areas in the world too.

China is another oddity. It should have 5 time zones. It only has 1, based off what suits the Beijing sun best! 😎 🇨🇳

4 Comments

Rob Keith says:

9 March, 2023 at 3:09 pm

Both maps and the opening titles are wrong:

“Mexican time is changing! They currently have 4 timezones:
PST (Pacific standard time) GMT-8 (which is just Tijuana)
EST (eastern) GMT-7
CST (central) GMT-6
MST (mountain) GMT-5”

EST and MST titles/labels are swapped in all (3) cases.
One minor error: “timezone/timezones” is actually two words instead of one.

- David Mumford says:
  
  10 March, 2023 at 7:16 am
  
  Thanks Rob – just fixed those bits now!
  
Richard Laberge says:

9 March, 2023 at 6:42 am

On the Mexican time map, east and mountain are at the wrong spot

- David Mumford says:
  
  10 March, 2023 at 7:15 am
  
  Thanks Richard – just fixed it!

What’s the Time, Mr Mexico?