I looked at the calendar today, something I don’t do every day, believe it or not, and I noticed that today is the start of Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. (and probably Canada too).  So I thought I’d write about the time difference between Bahrain and the Western Hemisphere since, subjectively speaking, it’s changed now.  Just so we’re all on the same page as it were.

Bahrain does not observe Daylight Savings Time.  It is in the time zone GMT +3 if that means anything to anyone.  Here are the time zones for the continental U.S., just for comparison:

• Eastern Standard Time is GMT -5
• Central Standard Time is GMT -6
• Mountain Standard Time is GMT -7
• Pacific Standard Time is GMT -8

Zero is GMT, which is Greenwich Mean Time or Zulu (that was for you, Jeff).  Everything in the Western Hemisphere is a negative number and everything in the Eastern Hemisphere is a positive number.  So when figuring how many hours different you basically forget the sign and just add the two numbers together, like this:

• EST = 8 hours behind Bahrain (5+3)
• CST = 9 hours behind Bahrain (6+3)
• MST = 10 hours behind Bahrain (7+3)
• PST = 11 hours behind Bahrain (8+3)

Or you can think of it as Bahrain is that many hours ahead.  But when you switch to Daylight Savings Time you have to remember that you are an hour ahead of what the Standard Time would be.  So, from now until November, when you all switch back, Bahrain is the following number of hours ahead of each time zone:

• EDT (Eastern Daylight Time): 7
• CDT: 8
• MDT: 9
• PDT: 10

This means, for example, that when it is midnight in Illinois (CDT), it is 8:00 a.m. here.

I hope that clears everything up without it being too confusing.  If not, please ask me for clarification.

Happy time change, everyone!