Additional Greenland time zone

Sat Jun 9 22:15:53 UTC 2001

Actually, my speaking danish helped me to find another page which is more recent
than Steffens page, and which mentions the time zone change in March 2001.
Besides it is part of the web pages of the government in Greenland. But the
information corresponds to Steffens information. Unfortunately it doesn't mention
the GMT offset of each area.

Greenland has been under Home Rule (sort of independence) but somewhat
supported economically by the Danish Government during many years. 
Foreign policy has
always been administered by the danish government, so that is why I am a
bit puzzled that the 'europe' file says that Greenland left EU 1985-02-01, but 
they are still following EU time zone rules. There is still
one representative from Greenland in the danish parliament (folketinget), which
is elected at each danish election, thus coordinating the election dates of
Denmark to be followed strictly in Greenland.

On the page http://www.epr.gl/government/welcome.htm you can scroll down
to the little sun which says "sommertid" and entering this goes to
http://www.epr.gl/government/dk_pressrel/160301_sommertid.html
which has the following text, with my translation in english:

==========================
Sommertid starter
::Summer time starts

Så nærmer tiden sig, hvor sommeren er tilbage og der skal skiftes fra vintertid
til sommertid.
:: Now the time approaches, when the summer is back and it is necessary to
:: shift from winter time to summer time.

Søndag den 25. marts, 2001, skal der skiftes til sommertid. Der skiftes officielt
natten mellem lørdag og søndag.
:: Sunday the 25.th. of March, 2001, it is necessary to shift to summer time.
:: The official change happens the night between Saturday and Sunday.

Det betyder, at Lørdag den 24. marts klokken 22.00 skal klokken stilles een time
frem til klokken 23.00.
:: This means that Saturday March 24 at 22:00 o'clock the time will be set one
:: hour ahead to 23:00 o'clock.

For Ittoqqortoormiit starter sommertiden Søndag den 25. marts klokken 00.00,
hvor klokken stilles een time frem til klokken 01.00.
:: For Ittoqqortoormiit the summer time starts Sunday March 25 at 0:00 o'clock,
:: where the time will be set one hour ahead to 1:00 o'clock.

For så vidt angår Danmarkshavn og forsvarsområdet ved Pituffik er der ikke indført
sommertid.
:: Concerning Danmarkshavn and the defense area at Pituffik there has not
:: been implemented summer time.
==========================

So the main changes are a new time zone Danmarkshavn with GMT+0 with no
DST, and that the time zone America/Thule no longer uses
summer time.

As a personal comment, maybe the Pituffik air base (Thule) is internally using
US daylight saving by the american personnel, while the local population
nearby does not use summer time, as documented by the forementioned
web pages. If that is the case, I don't know if we would make two different
time zones for Thule ... but this is all highly speculative.

Regards,

Jesper Nørgaard Welen
Email: jnorgard at Prodigy.Net.mx	
Programador/Analista
CIMMYT  -  Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo
Dirección: CIMMYT Int. c/o Jesper Nørgaard
Km. 45, Carretera México-Veracruz
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Texcoco, Edo. de México
CP 56130   MEXICO
Tel.:	+52 (5) 58-04-20-04  ext. 1374
Fax:	+52 (5) 58-04-75-58
Tel. Casa:   53-10-05-95  ó  53-10-97-78
CIMMYT home page: 
http://cimmyt.cgiar.org
Check out my free program World Time Explorer:
http://www20.Brinkster.com/timezone50/index.htm
http://members.theglobe.com/timezone50/index.htm

----------
From: 	Steffen Thorsen[SMTP:straenn at thorsen.priv.no]
Sent: 	Miércoles 6 de Junio de 2001 15:01
To: 	Time Zone List
Subject: 	Re: Additional Greenland time zone

On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, Gwillim Law wrote:

> Does anyone out there speak Norwegian or Danish?
Most of your translations are correct already, but here goes...

> Sommertiden begjynner den 24. mars 2001. Grønland har 4 lokale tider, og i relasjon til UTC gjelder følgende tidslinje:
DST starts on 24 March 2001. Greenland has 4 different local times, and
compared to UTC these are:

> Forsvarsområdet ved Thule    UTC-4
The military zone/area near Thule

> Grønlandsk normaltid    UTC-3
> Scoresby-sund    UTC-1
> Danmarks-havn    UTC
> Danmark (Mellem-europæisk tid)    UTC+1

> Sommertid innføres som følger:
DST will be introduced as follows:

> 1. Grønlandsk normaltid: Den 24. mars 2001 kl. 2200 stilles uret frem til kl. 2300.
Greenland normal time: 24 March 2001 at 2200 the clock is turned forward to 2300

> 2. Scoresbysund: Den 25. mars 2001 kl. 0000 stilles uret frem til kl. 0100.
Scoresbysund: 25 March 2001 at 0000 the clocks are turned forward to 0100

> 3. I forsvarsområdet ved Thule samt i Danmarkshavn innføres det ikke sommertid."
In the military area near Thule and in Danmarkshavn DST will not be introduced.

> What I make of this is:  Greenland Summer time begins on 24 March 2001.  Greenland has four local times, and the relation to UTC is according to the following time line: [the following five items are aligned horizontally]
> Thule and environs [?]    UTC-4
> Standard Greenland time    UTC-3
> Scoresbysund    UTC-1
> Danmarkshavn    UTC
> Denmark (Central European Time)    UTC+1
> Summer time [...?]
> 1.  Standard Greenland time:  on 24 March 2001 at 22:00 change the clock to 23:00 [?]
> 2.  Scoresbysund:  on 25 March 2001 at 00:00 change the clock to 01:00
> 3.  In the environs of Thule together with Danmarkshavn [...?]."
> 
> Here's an excerpt from another page <http://www.gh.gl/kn/news/govern/ukiunalun.htm>, probably in Danish:
> 
> "Vintertid fra på søndag den 31. oktober
> Uret stilles en time tilbage
> Natten mellem lørdag og søndag den 31. oktober 1999 slutter sommertiden. Der skiftes officielt lørdag den 30. oktober 1999 kl. 23:00. Det betyder, at vi kl. 23:00 stiller klokken en time tilbage til kl. 22:00.
> For Ittoqqortoormiit slutter sommertiden søndag den 31. oktober 1999 kl. 01:00, hvor klokken stilles een time tilbage til kl. 00:00.
> For Danmarkshavn og i forsvarsområdet i Pituffik er der ikke indført sommertid/vintertid."
> 
> It looks as if this means that in most of Greenland, the clock turned back from 30 October 1999 23:00 to 22:00.  In Ittoqqortoormiit (= Scoresbysund), it went from 31 October 1999 01:00 to 00:00.  In Danmarkshavn and Pituffik (= Thule), something else happened, but I can't tell what.

The last line is: In Danmarkshavn and the military zone/area in Pituffik
DST is not observed (i.e. there is no change on 31 October).

-- 
Steffen Thorsen <steffen at thorsen.priv.no> <steffent at pvv.ntnu.no>
http://www.thorsen.priv.no