Eastern Standard Time Zone

The Eastern Standard Time Zone (EST) is the time zone for the eastern part of the Americas including the United States, Canada and parts of South America and the Caribbean. EST is five hours behind UTC normally. It is four hours behind UTC during Daylight saving time.

[edit] Usage

In Canada, the following provinces and territories are part of the Eastern Time Zone:

Ontario (except areas west of Thunder Bay but including Atikokan)
Quebec (except far eastern Côte-Nord and the Magdalen Is.)
East-central Nunavut (including part of Melville Pen. and most of Ellesmere and Baffin Is., including Iqaluit; Southampton Island does not observe Daylight saving time)

In the United States, the following states are part of the Eastern Time Zone:

Parts of several other states use Eastern Time as well:

nearly all of Florida except for the west border with Alabama
most of Indiana (all except the Evansville area and the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois)
eastern half of Kentucky
all of Michigan except the four counties that border Wisconsin (Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, Menominee).
the eastern third of Tennessee
some towns in eastern Alabama, including Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley, observe Eastern Time, although they are officially in the Central Time Zone. The main reason for this is because they are close to Columbus, Georgia, which is in the Eastern Time Zone.^[1]

The following countries that use Eastern Time Zone include:

Mexico - the eastern state of Quintana Roo also followed EST for a brief period in the 1990s
Panama
Jamaica
Haiti
Cuba
the Bahamas
Not all Caribbean countries observe Daylight saving time.

In South America this time zone is observed in:

Colombia
Ecuador (except Galápagos)
Peru
Parts of Brazil:
- the state of Acre
- Amazonas - the southwestern region of the state.

↑ McDearman, Brian. "Parts of Eastern Alabama split between 2 time zones", The Decatur Daily, 2006-08-13. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.