Determine the time in Central Standard Time. This will be your starting point to converting to Pacific Standard Time. The largest cities in the CST timezone are Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; and San Antonio, Texas. Most of Tennessee, including Nashville and Memphis, forms the eastern-most point of the Central timezone.
Subtract two hours. Every timezone on the planet represents 15 degrees of longitude on the globe. The Central and Pacific timezones are separated by approximately 30 degrees of longitude, or two timezones. Mountain Standard Time exists between Central and Pacific. Arizona, the only state in the US that does not recognize Daylight Savings Time (DST), is located in the Mountain timezone. This can be confusing when calculating time differences during DST, but does not affect the conversion between Central and Pacific time.
Find your result. When you have subtracted two hours from the current time in CST, the answer will be the current time in PST. For example, when it is 12:00 noon in Chicago, it will be 10:00 AM in L.A.; at 5:00 PM in San Antonio it is 3:00 PM in Las Vegas. This is consistent even in summer months when Daylight Savings is in effect in both timezones.
