Time in Los Angeles

Pacific Time is based on the 120th meridian west, which runs along the California–Nevada border north of Lake Tahoe. Los Angeles lies near 118.2° west, so solar noon falls a few minutes before 12:00 in winter and close to 1:00 PM in summer, once daylight saving is added. California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and the Canadian province of British Columbia all share the zone.

In 2018 California voters approved Proposition 7, which allows the legislature to adopt year-round daylight time if Congress ever permits it. Neither step has happened, so Los Angeles still changes its clocks twice a year at 2:00 AM, on the same Sundays as New York and Chicago.

New York is three hours ahead all year, which means a 9:00 AM meeting in Los Angeles is noon on Wall Street and the 4:00 PM New York close happens at 1:00 PM local time. London is eight hours ahead for most of the year, so the only comfortable overlap is early: 8:00 AM in LA is 4:00 PM in London. During the short spells in March and autumn when the US and Europe are out of step, the gap is seven hours. The PST to EST page lists every hour of the coast-to-coast difference.

Asia is easier from the West Coast than from the East. Tokyo is 16 hours ahead during PDT and 17 hours ahead in winter, so a 5:00 PM call in Los Angeles lands at 9:00 or 10:00 AM the next morning in Tokyo. Sydney is between 17 and 19 hours ahead depending on both hemispheres' daylight saving dates.

At 34° north, Los Angeles has milder seasonal swings than New York or London. In late June the sun rises about 5:40 AM and sets a little after 8:05 PM, roughly 14 hours 25 minutes of daylight. Around the December solstice sunrise is close to 6:55 AM and sunset about 4:45 PM, giving just under 10 hours. The table on this page recalculates both every day from the city's coordinates.