In the graph below you see the time zone difference between Pacific Daylight Time and Eastern 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. Eastern Standard Time is the time zone of the Canadian and US East Coast, with places like Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Washington D.C. And Miami.
Usually it is preferable to schedule meetings in the morning for the person in PDT and after lunch for the person in EST.
More PDT conversions
PDT to GMT, PDT to CST, PDT to IST, PDT to CET, PDT to PST
More EST conversions
EST to JST, EST to CEST, EST to CDT, EST to KST, EST to MDT
If you are thinking of converting PDT to EST you need to pay a little extra attention – while some locations observe EST, or Eastern Standard Time all year round, other places like Panama and Jamaica never change to summer time (known as EDT).
Let’s start by going through the basics: many places in the world adjust the clocks for summer time. The reasons for this are disputed but one common explanation is so to better utilize the daylight of summer – you move the clock one hour ahead and thus “gain” one hour of sunlight as what was previously 8AM all of a sudden is 7AM.
In the Western United States, where they observe Pacific Standard Times (PST) this becomes PDT, Pacific Daylight Time in the summer. Similarly, on the East Coast they call it Eastern Standard Time in the winter (EST) and then Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) in the summer.
As both time zones change from summer to winter time on the same date, typically in the beginning of November, you will actually never have to convert PDT to EST as long as you are looking to have a meeting or schedule a call with someone who is in the US. If you use myMeetingTime.com’s time zone converter though you won’t have to worry about this as it automatically detects what timezone it currently is in for example New York.
There are however a couple of exceptions you need to pay attention to: As mentioned in the beginning both Panama and Jamaica are on Eastern Standard Time, but because they are further to the south they have chosen NOT to adjust for DST (daylight saving time) in the summer. They are thus always on EST. The same goes for the Cayman Islands. But both Bahamas and Haiti DO observe summer time so then you would have to use another conversion instead.
To make matters a little bit more complicated still, in the summer when there is Pacific Daylight Time in the West there are some locations in the central US that are now on the same time as EST!
So the best advice when it comes to converting PDT to EST is really to not rely on the time zone abbreviation unless you are absolutely sure which timezone is observed at the moment. Instead, just use a reliable converter like myMeetingTime to see the difference between two locations. As an added bonus, it will automatically calculate the best time for you and your friend to meet, or for you to call that bank on the Cayman Islands!
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.
This is the standard time of the Eastern US, Canada and parts of the Caribbean. It is in most places observed only in the winter months, from November to March. The origin of EST is the same as for most time zones – it was introduced when the railroad was built across the United States. It is important to note that there is also Eastern Standard Time in Australia, but this is usually called AEST and thus not to be confused with EST.
Most of the Eastern seaboard of the US observe EST, as well as most locations in Eastern Canada although there are a few exceptions. Locations such as New York, Washington, Quebec and Ontario are all on Eastern Standard Time. Also some Caribbean locations such as Jamaica, Haiti and Panama are in this time zone.
It is important to note that with the exception of Panama, Jamaica and a couple of locations in Canada and the US most in this time zone do observe DST and thus switch to EDT in the summer. As always, it is better to look up the actual location than the timezone itself.