Time in Doha

For half a century Qatar used UTC+4, the same offset as Dubai and Abu Dhabi today. In June 1972, shortly after independence, it moved its clocks back to UTC+3 to match Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. The choice leaves Doha slightly out of step with the sun: the peninsula sits at about 51.5° east, well east of the 45th meridian that UTC+3 is built on, so solar noon arrives around 11:32 to 11:35 AM.

The result is very early summer mornings. Around the June solstice the sun rises at about 4:44 AM and sets near 6:27 PM, a day of roughly 13 hours 43 minutes. In late December sunrise is close to 6:15 AM and sunset around 4:49 PM, about 10 and a half hours of light. Outdoor work in summer is restricted during the hottest midday hours, which pushes many activities into the early morning and the evening.

Qatar's weekend is Friday and Saturday, and the working week runs Sunday to Thursday. Government ministries often work from about 7:00 to 14:00, while private companies typically keep 8:00 to 17:00. Malls and restaurants stay open late, often until 22:00 or midnight. During Ramadan official hours are shortened and much of daily life moves after sunset. When Doha hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, group matches were spread across 13:00, 16:00, 19:00 and 22:00 local time, partly so they reached Europe in the afternoon and evening.

Doha is eight hours ahead of New York from November to March and seven hours ahead from March to November, so 9:00 AM in New York is 4:00 or 5:00 PM in Doha. London is three hours behind in winter and two in summer. Because Friday is off in Doha and Sunday in the West, the common working days are Monday to Thursday. The time zone converter converts any hour, and Riyadh shows the same clock as Doha.