What is the time zone of Washington?

The state of Washington is in the Pacific Time zone. All counties and cities of the state have the same time zone, there are no exceptions. Washington is observing daylight savings so there are two different clocks depending on the time of the year.

  • Pacific Standard Time (PST): – 8:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
  • Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): – 7:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
Pacific Time
us state Washington counties time zone map
Washington time zone
USA states time zones
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The neighbouring US states of Oregon and Idaho are in the same time zone. Also, when you cross the Canadian border with British Columbia there will be no change in time zone.

Daylight savings time (DST)

Washington is using daylight savings as also documented in the Uniform Time Act of 1966. During daylight savings the time changes from Pacific Standard time (PST) to Pacific Daylight time (PDT).

It starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. In March the clock is moved forward from 02.00 am to 03.00 am (so you will lose an hour of sleep during the night). While in November it’s reversed as the clock is moved backward from 03.00 am to 02.00 am and you will gain an extra hour of sleep. One way of remembering the movement sequence is that clocks “spring forward and fall back”.

The total period of daylight savings lasts for 34 weeks which is about 65% of the year.

Washington time news, bills and legislation

There is a continuous debate about which time should be applied. Several bills have been introduced to legalize daylight saving time as the year-round clock, whereas others try to align the time with bordering counties or states. The table below gives an overview of the latest bills in the state of Washington.

Date Bill Status/Action Title/summary
No bills known

Other US states

You can check out information and maps of other US states by clicking on the below links.