UTC announcements, Pacific clocks
Pacific time is UTC minus eight hours in winter and minus seven in summer. An 18:00 UTC start is 10:00 AM in Los Angeles in January and 11:00 AM in July. Enter a UTC time, or press Use now, to see the Pacific time.
Many global events are announced in UTC, such as a software release, an online conference or a game update. Fans and staff on the West Coast then need the Pacific equivalent. A 23:00 UTC start is 3:00 PM Pacific in January and 4:00 PM in July. Because Pacific time moves with daylight saving and UTC does not, an event on a fixed UTC schedule shifts by an hour on the Pacific clock when the clocks change.
Early UTC hours are the part that confuses people, since they are the night before for the West Coast. 07:30 UTC is 11:30 PM the previous evening in January, but in July it is 12:30 AM the same day, so the date itself depends on the season. The result flags the day for you.
Pacific has the largest gap of the common US zones, so check the day first and the time second. Press swap to start from a Pacific time and read UTC.
Worked examples
Questions about this tool
How many hours is Pacific time behind UTC?
Eight hours in winter and seven in summer.
Why does the same UTC time give different dates in winter and summer?
Because the offset is different. Early UTC hours cross midnight on the Pacific clock in winter but not in summer.
What if the schedule says 15:00 UTC?
That is 3:00 PM UTC, which is 7:00 AM Pacific in January and 8:00 AM in July.
Related tools
Where this comes from: IANA time zone database and the rules behind it ยท RFC 6557, how the time zone database is maintained