Newfoundland Standard Time Zone

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The Newfoundland Time Zone (NT) is a geographic region that keeps time by subtracting 3½ hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), resulting in UTC-3:30, or 2½ hours during Daylight Savings Time. The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 52nd degree and 30 arcminute meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.

NT is used only in Canada, and there only by the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Officially, the island of Newfoundland, plus its offshore islands, is the only part of the province that uses this time zone; Labrador, the mainland portion, officially uses Atlantic Standard Time. However, the southeastern tip of Labrador unofficially uses Newfoundland Time because of its close economic ties to the island.

This unique time zone exists because of the location of the island and the fact that it was a separate dominion when the time zones were established. The island of Newfoundland lies squarely in the eastern half of the Atlantic Standard Time Zone, exactly three and a half hours from Greenwich and, as a separate dominion, it had the ability to adopt its own timezone. In 1963, the Newfoundland government attempted to bring the province into conformity with the other Atlantic provinces, but withdrew in the face of stiff public opposition. [1]

This unique time zone puts the island of Newfoundland half an hour ahead of the rest of North America (with the exception of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, which uses UTC-3 as standard time). Because of this, it will hit milestones of time before (almost) any other part of the continent, a quirk that draws attention to Newfoundland. Hollywood celebrities have been spotted in St. John's for New Year's Eve^{[citation needed]}, and the Newfoundland release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was publicised across Canada.