Convert BST to EST time zone

Three things to think about when you convert time from BST to EST

It might seem to just be a quick jump across the pond between New York and London but that “jump” is a couple of hours wide and as we all know that is adjusted by using different time zones. But London is a bit of a special case as it also happens to be the home of Greenwich Mean Time – the standard which all other time zones are set by. Below we list three things you need to pay attention to when it comes to scheduling meetings between these two timezones.

Number 1 - make sure that you actually want to convert BST to EST! BST stands for British Summer Time and as that name indicates it is only observed in the summer. Confusingly the rest of the year the United Kingdom observes GMT and you might miss that meeting anyway! See more about why do clocks change to BST

Number 2 make sure that your counterpart is actually on EST! EST stands for Eastern Standard time and is the “winter time” of the Eastern United States and Canada (as well as some Caribbean locations, more on this below). Chances are that you actually want to convert BST to EDT as those are the “summer times”! Locations like New York, Miami and Montreal are all on EST until March, but the rest of the year they observe summer time.

Number 3 - pay attention to when the switch happens. As shown above, EST is a “winter time” but BST is a “summer time” so most of the year this is not relevant to convert – unless you are meeting with someone who is in say Jamaica or Panama that are on Eastern Standard Time the whole year. There are however two times per year when this is extra confusion: as the United States switches from EST to EDT one week ahead of the United Kingdom goes from GMT to BST there is one week of the year when you need to convert BST to EST. But this is quite cumbersome to remember so you are probably better of just using a regular time zone converter and entering the location names, like London to New York time!

Hopefully this made things a little bit clearer when it comes to converting these two confusing time zones! Most of the year you should be fine but do pay extra attention around the switching times.

ABOUT BST

British Summer Time, or sometimes called British Standard Time, is the timezone of the United Kingdom in the summer months. It does not have a typical counterpart like most summer/winter pairs but is an exception to adjust for the dark winters in the UK!

Countries using BST:

United Kingdom only, including the Isle Of Man

Example of cities observing it:

All cities in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), such as London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff and so on.

Summer time and Daylight saving time:

BST is the summer time equivalent of GMT. So for half the year the UK is on Greenwich Standard Time and the rest of the year they observe British Summer Time which is one hour ahead.

Other:

While GMT is observed in many places in addition to the UK BST is only observed in Britain (as the name suggests). Not even Ireland are on BST in the summer, instead they have their own time zone for this.

ABOUT EST

Eastern Standard Time, abbreviated as EST, is 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time, so when the clock is 12 noon in places like San Francisco it is 4PM in London at the zero meridian.

Countries using EST:

Eastern US and Canada, with the exception of the easternmost part of Canada. The Dominican Republic also applies EST as well as some other Caribbean locations, notably Jamaica and Panama who are on it all year round.

Example of cities:

Some of the main cities observing EST is New York, Washington, Toronto, Montreal and Miami as well as several Central American countries

Daylight saving time and summer time:

Between March and November EDT is in use, moving the clocks ahead one hour compared to in the winter time.

Other:

In Spanish it is known as ET – Tiempo del Este and in French HNE – Heure Normale de l'Est.