Asia/Riyadh

Time zone identifier: Asia/Riyadh

Current civil offset: +03:00 (+03)

Current DST state: Observing Standard Time

First standard time adoption: Adopted on 1947-03-13

Local Mean Time (LMT): +03:06:52 based on geographic meridian

Total recorded transitions: 1 transitions across 2 distinct offsets

Associated countries: AQ, KW, SA, YE

Aliases (Link targets): Antarctica/Syowa, Asia/Aden, Asia/Kuwait

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Historical Offset Step Chart (1880 to Present)

+2:00 +3:00 +4:00 +5:00 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Text summary: Asia/Riyadh shifted between 2 distinct offsets from 1947-03-13 through the modern era.

Complete Transition History (1 Transitions)

UTC Instant Local Wall Time Shift Abbreviation DST Effect
1947-03-13T20:53:08Z 1947-03-13 23:53:08 +03:06:52 → +03:00 +03 No overlap

Notes from the Maintainers

Source: asia (Lines 3799 to 3846)
Kuwait
Saudi Arabia
Yemen

Japan's year-round bases in Antarctica match this since 1970.

From Paul Eggert (2018-08-29):
Time in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Arabian peninsula was not
standardized until 1968 or so; we don't know exactly when, and possibly it
has never been made official.  Richard P Hunt, in "Islam city yielding to
modern times", New York Times (1961-04-09), p 20, wrote that only airlines
observed standard time, and that people in Jeddah mostly observed quasi-solar
time, doing so by setting their watches at sunrise to 6 o'clock (or to 12
o'clock for "Arab" time).

Timekeeping differed depending on who you were and which part of Saudi
Arabia you were in.  In 1969, Elias Antar wrote that although a common
practice had been to set one's watch to 12:00 (i.e., midnight) at sunset -
which meant that the time on one side of a mountain could differ greatly from
the time on the other side - many foreigners set their watches to 6pm
instead, while airlines instead used UTC +03 (except in Dhahran, where they
used UTC +04), Aramco used UTC +03 with DST, and the Trans-Arabian Pipe Line
Company used Aramco time in eastern Saudi Arabia and airline time in western.
(The American Military Aid Advisory Group used plain UTC.)  Antar writes,
"A man named Higgins, so the story goes, used to run a local power
station. One day, the whole thing became too much for Higgins and he
assembled his staff and laid down the law. 'I've had enough of this,' he
shrieked. 'It is now 12 o'clock Higgins Time, and from now on this station is
going to run on Higgins Time.' And so, until last year, it did."  See:
Antar E. Dinner at When? Saudi Aramco World, 1969 March/April. 2-3.
http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/196902/dinner.at.when.htm
Also see: Antar EN. Arabian flying is confusing.
Port Angeles (WA) Evening News. 1965-03-10. page 3.

The TZ database cannot represent quasi-solar time; airline time is the best
we can do.  The 1946 foreign air news digest of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics
Board (OCLC 42299995) reported that the "... Arabian Government, inaugurated
a weekly Dhahran-Cairo service, via the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and
Jidda, on March 14, 1947".  Shanks & Pottenger guessed 1950; go with the
earlier date.

Shanks & Pottenger also state that until 1968-05-01 Saudi Arabia had two
time zones; the other zone, at UT +04, was in the far eastern part of
the country.  Presumably this is documenting airline time.  Ignore this,
as it's before our 1970 cutoff.

Zone	NAME		STDOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]

Attributed Statements:

Paul Eggert (2018-08-29):

Time in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Arabian peninsula was not standardized until 1968 or so; we don't know exactly when, and possibly it has never been made official. Richard P Hunt, in "Islam city yielding to modern times", New York Times (1961-04-09), p 20, wrote that only airlines observed standard time, and that people in Jeddah mostly observed quasi-solar time, doing so by setting their watches at sunrise to 6 o'clock (or to 12 o'clock for "Arab" time). Timekeeping differed depending on who you were and which part of Saudi Arabia you were in. In 1969, Elias Antar wrote that although a common practice had been to set one's watch to 12:00 (i.e., midnight) at sunset - which meant that the time on one side of a mountain could differ greatly from the time on the other side - many foreigners set their watches to 6pm instead, while airlines instead used UTC +03 (except in Dhahran, where they used UTC +04), Aramco used UTC +03 with DST, and the Trans-Arabian Pipe Line Company used Aramco time in eastern Saudi Arabia and airline time in western. (The American Military Aid Advisory Group used plain UTC.) Antar writes, "A man named Higgins, so the story goes, used to run a local power station. One day, the whole thing became too much for Higgins and he assembled his staff and laid down the law. 'I've had enough of this,' he shrieked. 'It is now 12 o'clock Higgins Time, and from now on this station is going to run on Higgins Time.' And so, until last year, it did." See: Antar E. Dinner at When? Saudi Aramco World, 1969 March/April. 2-3. http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/196902/dinner.at.when.htm Also see: Antar EN. Arabian flying is confusing. Port Angeles (WA) Evening News. 1965-03-10. page 3. The TZ database cannot represent quasi-solar time; airline time is the best we can do. The 1946 foreign air news digest of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board (OCLC 42299995) reported that the "... Arabian Government, inaugurated a weekly Dhahran-Cairo service, via the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Jidda, on March 14, 1947". Shanks & Pottenger guessed 1950; go with the earlier date. Shanks & Pottenger also state that until 1968-05-01 Saudi Arabia had two time zones; the other zone, at UT +04, was in the far eastern part of the country. Presumably this is documenting airline time. Ignore this, as it's before our 1970 cutoff. Zone NAME STDOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]

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.