Z Time Question

[Teri Mooney]

Can someone please explain Z time to me. I'm understanding that it is marine time, but how does it convert to our normal time? Thanks.

Teri Mooney

[Jason Boggs]

Here ya go Teri. Hopefully this will help.

Z TIME (http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/75/)

[Elinor McLennon]

when people post time frames on here for storms and they say 0z(for example) are we talking about central time?????
hope that question makes sense.

[David Wolfson]

The use of Z(ulu) time (or GMT or UTC, which are all equivalent) is intended to avoid the problem you bring up in your question. 00Z is the same time whatever time zone you're personally referenced to. For example Arizona doesn't practice daylight savings time so we're always UTC-7hrs, but your Central time zone area is either UTC-5hrs or UTC-6hrs depending.... Use of universal time avoids all these confusions.

[Elinor McLennon]

thanks david. that makes sense.
this forum is awesome and i appreciate all the help.

[Bobby Prentice]

Can someone please explain Z time to me. I'm understanding that it is marine time, but how does it convert to our normal time? Thanks.

See the following link for an explanation of GMT. Aviators commonly refer to GMT as Zulu time

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time)

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

The use of Z(ulu) time (or GMT or UTC, which are all equivalent) is intended to avoid the problem you bring up in your question. 00Z is the same time whatever time zone you're personally referenced to. For example Arizona doesn't practice daylight savings time so we're always UTC-7hrs, but your Central time zone area is either UTC-5hrs or UTC-6hrs depending.... Use of universal time avoids all these confusions.

Hmmmm....Okay, so let's say that SPC is talking about an outbreak in the MOD RISK area around 00Z. Assuming the MOD RISK area is in the Central TZ, it would be 7pm? I don't know why I have sooo much trouble with Zulu! :confused:

Thanks in advance...

Melanie

[Chris Foltz]

Melanie,

Yes that is correct during daylight saving time. 00z would equate to 7pm in the central time zone. Consequently, 00z would be 6pm in the central time zone once daylight saving time ends.

[Laura Duchesne]

Here is a great chart that has helped me overcome my zulu problem :)

http://atm.geo.nsf.gov/ieis/time.html

[Mikey Gribble]

During chase season just subtract 5 hours from zulu time to get central time. It will be 6 hours after daylight savings time kicks in again (as others have mentioned). It will start to be second nature after a while. I admit I still have to think about it sometimes, but 12Z, 18Z, 20Z, and 00Z will be automatic before long since they are such common times used in forecasting.

[David Poch]

This little app helped me learn Z Time. It's free and you can set up a bunch of other time zones with it. You can move the clock window anywhere you want on the screen and it always stays on top of all other windows.

http://www.di-mgt.com.au/wclock/

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

Thank you, David, for posting this app. I hope that this will help me grasp the concept! It's like math -- I stink at this. :)

[Phil Kurimski]

The computer application is pretty neat! I have a watch with dual time zones on it. I keep the digital time as 24 hour Zulu time and the clock face as local time. Being in meteorology most everything is referenced as Zulu time so it is handy to always know what Z time it is. Just remember to not adjust your Z time for Daylight/Standard time as it is constant.