Africa/Addis_Ababa

Time zone identifier: Africa/Addis_Ababa

Current civil offset: +03:00 (EAT)

Current DST state: Observing Standard Time

First standard time adoption: Adopted on 1869-12-31

Local Mean Time (LMT): +02:34:48 based on geographic meridian

Total recorded transitions: 2 transitions across 3 distinct offsets

Associated countries: ET

Historical Offset Step Chart (1880 to Present)

Text summary: Africa/Addis_Ababa shifted between 3 distinct offsets from 1869-12-31 through the modern era.

Complete Transition History (2 Transitions)

UTC Instant	Local Wall Time	Shift	Abbreviation	DST	Effect
`1869-12-31T21:25:12Z`	`1870-01-01 00:00:32`	+02:34:48 → +02:35:20	`ADMT`	No	gap
`1936-05-04T21:24:40Z`	`1936-05-05 00:24:40`	+02:35:20 → +03:00	`EAT`	No	gap

Notes from the Maintainers

Source: backzone (Lines 165 to 176)

Ethiopia
From Paul Eggert (2014-07-31):
Like the Swahili of Kenya and Tanzania, many Ethiopians keep a
12-hour clock starting at our 06:00, so their "8 o'clock" is our
02:00 or 14:00.  Keep this in mind when you ask the time in Amharic.

Shanks & Pottenger write that Ethiopia had six narrowly spaced time
zones between 1870 and 1890, that they merged to 38E50 (2:35:20) in
1890, and that they switched to 3:00 on 1936-05-05.  Perhaps 38E50
was for Adis Dera.  Quite likely the Shanks data entries are wrong
anyway.

Attributed Statements:

Paul Eggert (2014-07-31):

Like the Swahili of Kenya and Tanzania, many Ethiopians keep a 12-hour clock starting at our 06:00, so their "8 o'clock" is our 02:00 or 14:00. Keep this in mind when you ask the time in Amharic. Shanks & Pottenger write that Ethiopia had six narrowly spaced time zones between 1870 and 1890, that they merged to 38E50 (2:35:20) in 1890, and that they switched to 3:00 on 1936-05-05. Perhaps 38E50 was for Adis Dera. Quite likely the Shanks data entries are wrong anyway.

Years on Record

Methodology Note: The 1970 Rule

tzdb guarantees accuracy for timestamps from 1970 onwards. Transitions prior to 1970 represent best-effort historical reconstructions.