In the graph below you see the time zone difference between Pacific Daylight Time and Central Standard Time. Drag the bubble to adjust the time and to see the corresponding time in the other time zone.
Pacific Daylight Time is the time zone of the Canadian and US West Coast when observing daylight saving time in the summer, including cities like Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Central Standard Time is the time zone of the central US and Canada, as well as most of Central America, with places like Winnipeg, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Mexico City, San Jose and Panama City.
Usually it is preferable to schedule meetings in the morning for the person in PDT and after lunch for the person in CST.
More PDT conversions
PDT to IST, PDT to CET, PDT to PST, PDT to EDT, PDT to BST
More CST conversions
CST to EDT, CST to BST, CST to CEST, CST to CDT, CST to MDT
Pacific Daylight Time is the time of the Western United States and Canada and is typically abbreviated as PDT. It is 8 hours behind GMT. Although PDT is for the Western part of the US and Canada it is not the Westernmost – both Hawaii and Alaska are on their own time zones due to their location.
Pacific Daylight Time is for the Western US and Canada and thus include locations such as Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It also extends halfway down Baja California in Mexico. In addition to California and Washington also Nevada and Idaho are on PDT in the summer.
PDT is only used in the summer months so you will need to pay attention to when the switch takes place. Daylight Time is in the Pacific area observed from November to March and is one hour ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
Central Standard Time is the time zone of the central US and Canada, as well as Mexico and most of Central America. It is six hours behind UTC and is observed during the winter months. In the summer CST becomes CDT – Central Daylight Time. It is important to remember that not all locations in a given state or province necessarily use the time zone – make sure to check the situation for your exact location!
CST is observed in the US, Canada, Mexico and all of Central America (including Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras). In the US it is only the states in the central parts that observes CST, from Wisconsin in the West to Tennessee in the East, and from Michigan in the North to Florida in the South. Similarly, only Canadian provinces in the middle of the country observe CST. With the exception of the North West corner, all of Mexico observes CST.
Mexico: México (including Mexico City), Oaxaca, Yucatán, San Luis Potosi, Chiapas and more.
Canada: Saskatchewan (only Creighton and Denare Beach), Manitoba and most ports of Ontario
US: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Illinois to mention a few.
Most locations in Central Standard Time observe summer time between March and November, then calling it CDT – Central Daylight Time. It is always advisable to check the exact location (e.g. using our time zone converter) instead of relying on time zone abbreviations as there are sometimes exceptions, e.g. some states in the US are split between two time zones.