What time is Zulu time?

24 hr precip fcst

With the recent change to Daylight Savings time, most of us in the U.S. have moved an hour closer to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), more commonly known to meteorologists, aviators, and the military as Zulu (Z) time. Zulu time is based on the time zone that runs through Greenwich, England, and is used to give weather observers and forecasters around the world a common time of reference. Plus, saying �Zulu� over and over puts a smile on Gothamist�s face. Upper air observations are made twice a day at 00Z and 12Z (8a.m. and 8 p.m. EDT), with the National Weather Service issuing forecasts based on those, and other observations.

The forecast above is telling us that there is a 90 percent chance of rain for the 24hrs ending tomorrow at 1200 UTC which is 12Z which is 8 a.m. EDT. In other words, it is April, time to get your umbrellas out.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Joe Schumacher in News on April 8, 2004 10:54 AM

Comments [rss]

whatisee

Ben Franklin was one of the first people to suggest it.

If you're at all curious about timezones, you need to go download the Olsen database and read the raw files. It's the closest thing to accurate we have in the world.

http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm

ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tz...

Hint: read up on Brazil, Manitoba/Canada, Israel and Mexico for the best laughs.

Brazil: picks new dates each year

Manitoba: Nativa Americans don't like being told what time it is

Israel: it's a political/religious issue

Mexico: it's a campaign issue,something about farmers not having enough free time with their wives in the morning.

joe s

Thanks for pointing that out. I've always said "savings" without thinking about the usage. Since no daylight is actually saved (how would you do that?), saving is also incorrect. It should be something like daylight shifted time.

seekaltroutes

Perils of reading Gothamist in reverse chronological order and not clicking on links: KP mentioned the "savings v. saving" thing in the other post on DST. <Sheepish>

seekaltroutes

It's Daylight *Saving* Time! Not Savings. By springing forward an hour, the sun now sets at, say, 6pm instead of 5pm, so we are "saving" an hour of daylight we would have "lost" if we didn't spring forward. Benjamin Franklin may have "passed the savings on to you" by coming up with the idea in the first place, but it's still Daylight Saving, *not* Daylight Savings.

The quality of Gothamist's content usually more than makes up for its occasional typos, but Savings/Saving is a big usage no-no, especially for weather/time/almanac aficionados like you all.

jake

i want more posts about time zones! for instance, their origin, how they got their names (some, like the aleutian time zone, just don't make sense), and how daylight savings time really works. i just don't understand why we do it.