Time zone · Americas
NDT
Newfoundland Daylight Time
Newfoundland Daylight Time is North America’s quirkiest half-hour offset: while most of the continent jumps by full hours, St. John’s lives 2½ hours behind UTC so far west it feels like its own island reality. That extra half-hour shift means sunrises and meetings arrive a little earlier than you’d expect—and locals wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sunday, May 31, 2026
Current offset
UTC-02:30
Daylight · NDT
Daylight saving
Active
Reverts 1 Nov 2026
IANA zones
1
1 observe DST, 0 don't
DST offset
—
No summer variant
About NDT
Standard time, with a summer shift.
Newfoundland Daylight Time is North America’s quirkiest half-hour offset: while most of the continent jumps by full hours, St. John’s lives 2½ hours behind UTC so far west it feels like its own island reality. That extra half-hour shift means sunrises and meetings arrive a little earlier than you’d expect—and locals wouldn’t have it any other way.
IANA zones · the technical identifiers
The zone that resolve to NDT.
For software, always store the IANA identifier — never the abbreviation alone. The database keeps these zones distinct because their rules can, and historically did, diverge.
Where NDT is used
One country.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about NDT, daylight saving, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- Why does Newfoundland use a half‑hour offset instead of a full-hour timezone?
- Newfoundland’s local solar time naturally falls about 3.5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. To stay close to the sun’s clock, the region settled on UTC−03:30 in standard time and UTC−02:30 in daylight saving, a compromise that’s been in place since 1935.
- Is Newfoundland the only place with a 30‑minute daylight saving shift?
- Almost. The world’s other famous half‑hour zones—like Iran and parts of Australia—spring forward a full hour; only Newfoundland (plus its short‑lived cousin Lord Howe Island with a 30‑minute increment) splits the difference, making NDT a true timekeeping outlier.
- When does NDT flip back to standard time?
- On the first Sunday in November, at 1:00 AM local daylight time, clocks wind back 30 minutes. The next transition is set for 2026‑11‑01, so mark your calendar—and set a second alarm.
- How does the half‑hour affect travel and remote calls?
- Expect a 30‑minute mental math problem. Toronto is 1½ hours ahead, London is 2½ hours behind, and even Atlantic‑time Halifax sits just 30 minutes apart—great for bridge games, trickier for calendar invites.
- Why ‘St_Johns’ in the zone file?
- Technicians stripped the apostrophe to fit legacy computer systems, so the representative zone is listed as America/St_Johns (with an underscore). Old maps say St. John’s; code says St_Johns.
- Does the half-hour offset help with daylight?
- Yes. By springing forward only 30 minutes, evenings stay brighter without yanking sunrise too far ahead—a sweet spot between energy‑saving wishes and Maritime coffee schedules.
- What happens on the night of the fallback?
- A 24‑hour loop becomes a 90‑minute rerun. Between midnight and 1:30 AM local time, the same 60 minutes happen twice; party twice, snooze twice, or finally finish that Netflix season.
- Is there ever talk of ditching the half-hour?
- Debates pop up whenever meeting invites confuse outsiders, but island pride runs deep. Most Newfoundlanders see their half-hour as cultural heritage—and a guaranteed conversation starter at global stand‑ups.
- How do digital tools handle NDT?
- Modern systems rely on the Olson tz database. Your calendar pings America/St_Johns, the offset toggles between –03:30 and –02:30 automatically, and you just remember to double‑check that ‘Newfoundland’ means ‘plus half.
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