Time in Riyadh

Riyadh kept local mean time until 1947, when Saudi Arabia adopted UTC+3. Before that, many towns in Arabia used a sunset-based reckoning in which the day began at dusk, a practice that lasted in some places into the mid-20th century. Today the whole kingdom, from Jeddah on the Red Sea to Dammam on the Gulf, uses one zone, shared with Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Iraq.

The city lies at about 46.7° east, close to the 45th meridian on which UTC+3 is based, so solar noon falls around 11:51 to 11:55 AM. Daylight runs from about 10 hours 36 minutes in December, with sunset near 5:09 PM, to about 13 hours 40 minutes in June, when the sun rises around 5:05 AM.

Since 2013 the weekend has been Friday and Saturday, so the working week runs Sunday to Thursday. Government offices traditionally keep morning hours, while private firms often work 8:00 or 9:00 to 17:00 or later. The Saudi Exchange, Tadawul, trades from 10:00 to 15:00 Sunday to Thursday. Daily prayer times, which shift with the sun, still shape the city: some shops close briefly at each prayer. During Ramadan official hours are cut and much of life moves to the night.

Riyadh is eight hours ahead of New York from November to March and seven hours ahead the rest of the year; a 9:00 AM New York call lands at 4:00 or 5:00 PM. London is three hours behind in winter and two hours behind during British Summer Time. Because Friday is a day off in Riyadh and Sunday in London and New York, the shared working week is only Monday to Thursday. The time zone converter shows any specific hour.