WEST — Western European Summer Time
WEST is Western European Summer Time, 1 hour ahead of UTC. It is a fixed offset: unlike a time zone, it does not change with the season — the zones that use it switch to a different abbreviation instead.
Current time in WEST
08:46
Sunday, 2 August 2026
WEST = UTC+1 · 1 hour ahead of UTC
Shown for 2 Aug 2026 07:46 UTC. The clock goes live as soon as scripts load.
UTC offset
UTC+1
Type
Daylight saving
Seasonal counterpart
GMT
The letters the same zones use for the other half of the year
Meanings
1
Unambiguous
Is WEST in force right now?
A zone only carries this abbreviation for part of the year. This is which of them were on it at 2 Aug 2026 07:46 UTC; the list is re-derived against your own clock when scripts load.
On WEST now
- Europe/Lisbon — Lisbon
- Atlantic/Canary — Las Palmas
Using a different abbreviation
- Every zone listed here was on WEST.
WEST alternates with GMT across the year.
Writing “WEST” for a date in the other half of the year is the most common time zone mistake in meeting invitations.
Convert WEST to other time zones
City clocks reflect whatever their zone is doing; where a city observes daylight saving time, its difference from WEST changes twice a year. Use the time zone converter for a specific date.
Time zones and cities that use WEST
Western European Summer Time · UTC+1
Why WEST is not an identifier
WEST is shorthand, not a standard. There is no registry of time zone abbreviations, no authority that assigns them, and nothing preventing two regions from adopting the same three letters — which is what makes codes like IST and CST unusable without context.
For anything a machine will read — a calendar invitation, a database column, an API response — use the IANA identifier of the zone (Europe/Lisbon, for example) or an explicit UTC offset alongside the date. The identifier survives a change in the law; WEST and its 1 hour offset do not.
Abbreviations on the same clock
Frequently asked questions
What does WEST stand for?
WEST stands for Western European Summer Time. It is 1 hour ahead of UTC, written UTC+1.
What is WEST in UTC?
WEST is UTC+1. To convert an WEST time to UTC, subtract 1 hour.
What is the difference between WEST and GMT?
WEST is the daylight saving form and GMT the standard form of the same zones. The two are one hour apart and only one is ever in force at a time, so a recurring meeting written "WEST" shifts by an hour when the clocks change.
Which time zone should I use instead of WEST?
Use an IANA identifier — Europe/Lisbon and Atlantic/Canary for Western European Summer Time — or state the UTC offset with the date. Abbreviations are not identifiers: they are not unique, they are not registered anywhere, and half of them change with the season. Calendar software resolves this automatically when you pick a city rather than typing letters.