In 1883, the U.S. Naval Observatory introduced four time zones to the continental U.S. A year later, the International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C. extended the standard to 24 zones around the world.
Each time zone runs north-south and measures about 15 degrees wide. Each boundary is uneven due to timekeeping requests of the people living inside a zone. Greenwich Observatory in England marks the location of Universal Time, Coordinate (UTC), the base for world timekeeping.
Central Time applies to the second time zone going from east to west. It covers more states than Pacific Time including Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Iowa and Illinois. Standard time in this zone is six hours behind UTC and Daylight Saving Time (DST) is five hours behind.
Pacific Time is the westernmost zone of the continental U.S. and covers five states: California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Idaho. Time here is two hours behind Central Time.
Central and Pacific Time stretches over parts of Mexico and Canada. However, Central Time also covers Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as some islands of Chile and Ecuador.
