Talk:Newfoundland Time Zone

When does DST start/end for this timezone?

This is one critical piece of information missing here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.23.23.199 (talk) 17:38, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

public opposition

The (Newfoundland) Daily News for May 27 1963 has an opinion piece "Turn Backward, O, Time" with the following complaint: ... is there cause to believe that any benefits from the change can possibly exceed the losses that must be suffered when we surrender the privilege of enjoying our own special brand of time confusion ... The article states that NT was originated in 1884 when a "reasonably precise measurement put the Avalon Peninsula 3 1/2 hours behind Greenwich" Adaviel (talk) 06:04, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

In fact, until 30 Mar 1935, Newfoundland was three hours, 30 minutes and 52 seconds behind Greenwich. Only on that date did Newfoundland conform to the standard of a multiple of 15 minutes (there have been official time zone offsets that were x hours and 15 or 45 minutes). On that date, Newfoundlanders moved their clocks 52 seconds closer to Greenwich, though, it being the time before digital timepieces, movement of the minute hand was sufficient, and for precise clocks, unplugging for eight seconds as well as moving the minute hand! GBC (talk) 01:46, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

@Gcapp1959: I wonder if there is a good source for this 52 second adjustment in 1935. If you google it, there are various "this day in history" items suggesting the adjustment was 44 seconds, not 52. It would be useful to have a contemporaneous source, such as a newspaper article either from March/April 1935 when the change occurred, or from earlier (1934?) when the decision was made by the Newfoundland government. I attempted to search The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the New York Times, but didn't find anything. In principle though, it shouldn't be difficult to access St. John's newspapers from that time, on microfilm in a library if not online, but the question is whether they have been indexed. Mathew5000 (talk) 21:01, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

Quotation re double daylight savings time

@Joeyconnick: Concerning this edit, you are mistaken. The source specifically quotes radio broadcaster Ted Blades as saying that in October, before the switch back to NST, parents will be sending their kids to school in the dark. I assume that in Newfoundland the school year runs from September to June, so it is wrong to call October "the latter part of the school year". In St. John's, in early October sunrise is normally around 7:00 a.m. NDT. But in 1988, sunrise in early October was around 8:00 a.m. NDDT; hence the concern over kids going to school in the dark. (May and June are near the summer solstice; in those months in St. John's the sun rises before 6:00 a.m. NDT.) Mathew5000 (talk) 08:59, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

Ah okay, I see. Sorry. And yes, September to June, unless things are much more unusual in NFLD than I've been led to believe. —Joeyconnick (talk) 22:02, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

Labrador situation

Although a user in 2008 asked a similar question I'm aware defacto most of Labrador uses Atlantic time, but de jure is the same as Newfoundland island and SE Labrador, is this something officially designated by local governments or the NL government(although the law says something nothing stops administratively them using Atlantic time in Labrador for convenience sake) or is the mandate on paper strict? and while mentioned in the article should the maps reflect this confusion? I'm Brazilian and this reminds me of the situation in certain municipalities in iirc Mato Grosso which unofficially use the Goiás time zone, but afaik is still officially under the time zone of Mato Grosso, I forget how Wikipedia maps deal with it, if it checkered those municipalities or show it as part of one or another time zone.

but ye my question basically is should maps be altered to reflect this? or is local usage so strong as to make it semi official even if the law hasn't been updated to keep up? or does the NL only follow the letter of law and doesn't recognize it? LeTommyWiseau2000 (talk) 23:35, 7 April 2025 (UTC)