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@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 El Batán 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@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@thorsen.priv.no> <steffent@pvv.ntnu.no> http://www.thorsen.priv.no