Additional Greenland time zone

Gwillim Law gwil at mindspring.com
Wed Jun 6 17:09:27 UTC 2001


Does anyone out there speak Norwegian or Danish?

The tz database lists only three time zones for Greenland, with standard time equal to UTC-1, UTC-3, and UTC-4.  Some recent time zone maps (e.g. <http://www.hammondmap.com/timezone/maintz.html>) show a fourth time zone in northeast Greenland with UTC as its standard time.  Doing some Internet research, I found a document, "Notices to Mariners", in Norwegian and English, at <http://www.statkart.no/efs/efshefter/2001/efs5-2001.pdf>.  The following excerpt obviously has a good deal of useful information, but appears in Norwegian only.

"220. (T). Grønland. Sommertid 2001.
Sommertiden begjynner den 24. mars 2001. Grønland har 4 lokale tider, og i relasjon til UTC gjelder følgende tidslinje:
Forsvarsområdetved Thule    UTC-4
Grønlandsk normaltid    UTC-3
Scoresby-sund    UTC-1
Danmarks-havn    UTC
Danmark (Mellem-europæisk tid)    UTC+1
Sommertid innføres som følger:
1. Grønlandsk normaltid: Den 24. mars 2001 kl. 2200 stilles uret frem til kl. 2300.
2. Scoresbysund: Den 25. mars 2001 kl. 0000 stilles uret frem til kl. 0100.
3. I forsvarsområdet ved Thule samt i Danmarkshavn innføres det ikke sommertid."

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.

There are similar texts on <http://www.statkart.no/efs/efshefter/2000/efs5-2000.pdf>, <http://www.gh.gl/dk/nyheder/regering/2000/meddelt1610-2.htm>, and <http://www.epr.gl/government/dk_pressrel/160301_sommertid.html>.  It looks as if they're all paraphrased from official Greenland press releases.

Can anyone translate the rest, or fill in any more details?

Gwillim Law

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