What Is The Time In Spain?

What was it that Bob Dylan wrote?  Ahh yes, “The times they are a changin’“.  So why do I bring that song up?  It’s really a mundane thing, but the time in Spain will be changing.  It’s time to turn the clocks back.  Who out there (in the Northern Hemisphere) has been waiting all year for that extra hour of sleep?  This guy, that’s who!

Sometimes it's difficult to figure out the current time in Spain, as it doesn't line up with the timezone. Alan describes Spain time with a sense of humor. Read more on WagonersAbroad.com

General Info about Time in Spain

Since we’re part of the EU, we use metric time here.  Instead of 60 seconds in a minute, there are 100 metric seconds (called centons) in a metric minute.  There’s still 60 minutes in an hour though.  Go figure!  If you were reading those last few sentences and were wondering, “What the hell?!“, you fell for it.  I just love my sense of humor.  You caught me in a strange mood, what can I say.

OK…for reals.  There are 2 Spain time zones.  Continental Spain time is GMT + 1.  The Canary Islands are GMT.  We do observe Daylight Savings Time, so we change the clocks on the last Sunday of March (clocks forward – Boooo!) and the last Sunday of October (clocks backward – Yippee!).

The actual time zone designations are CET (Central European Time) and CEST (Central European Summer Time)).

Time for a rant about Spain Time!

As I mentioned above, Spain time is an hour ahead of GMT.  The G in GMT is Greenwich, which is in London.  Now without really thinking about it, you would naturally think that Spain would be east of London right?  Check this out:

Map-of-Europe

Notice anything strange?  Yeah…Most of Spain is actually west of London.  There is a reason for this craziness, and it was due to Francisco Franco changing the time zone during World War II to match the time in Berlin.  And they’ve never gotten around to changing it back.

Daylight Savings Change Spain Time

There are some interesting changes planned for the use of DST.  Not just in Spain, but all throughout Europe, and specifically the E.U.  There is a bunch of talk about completely doing away with DST.  This means not changing the clocks every March and October.  It’s not 100% a done deal, but potentially, the time change that will happen in a few days might be the last one.  I think the plan is to ratify the change this year, so we won’t have to worry about this anymore.  Woo hoo!

I’m not sure what the impact will be to the daily life of the average Spaniard, but it’s one less thing to worry about.

To Sum Up The Time In Spain

Let me net it out for you:

  • Time In Spain changes in the March 28, and the clocks go forward an hour.  
  • This may be the last time we do the Daylight Savings change for Spain time.  Thumbs up!
  • Spain is still in the wrong time zone.  Not good, but I’ve been reaching out to various Ministers of This-or-That and Representatives, to see about getting this changed.  Stay tuned!

What time is it in Spain right now?

There are several sites that will show you the current Spain time.  Of course they each offer the time, but also a few other bits of data.

As of 2021 one final change of the clocks

Sunday October 25, 2020 at 2am, Spain’s clocks will go back one hour.  The same would apply to all of Europe & the UK.  Then in the spring on March 28, 2021 at 2am, the go forward 1 hour. 

By March 2021, each EU country will need to decide which time they want to permanently remain on, standard or day light saving.  In the year 2021, they will make that permanent change in March or October. 

For some of the EU countries, this change will be a permanent change and they will not go back and forth each fall and spring. 

The other EU countries who choose not to make it a permanent change, will go back one hour on October 31, 2021 and then they will make that their permanent change.

Read more about the announcement here.


Things to do in Spain by region

Things to do in Spain! Our Spain travel blog is loaded with tips for you to visit Spain, find deals on hotels, renting cars, Spanish customs, Spanish food and the way of life. An American family of 4 living in Spain from Aug 2012. Read more on WagonersAbroad.com

 

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