National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Tropical System in the Gulf; Dangerous Heat and Air Quality Concerns; Severe Thunderstorms for Midwest to mid-Atlantic

Tropical system in the Gulf expected to gradually strengthen the next couple of days off the Florida Panhandle and Alabama coasts. Instances of flash flooding will be possible through Thursday along the eastern and central Gulf Coast. Severe thunderstorms will develop and move along a cold front crossing the Upper Midwest, and through the Ohio Valley/Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday. Read More >

 

Pictures from around western Colorado and eastern Utah
What is "Z" Time?

Since weather observations and forecasts are provided around the globe, it is important to understand when each piece of data is valid for. To overcome the problem of numerous time zones, it was internationally agreed upon that weather time stamps would be based on the Prime Meridian, or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Other names for GMT include Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) or "Z" Time.
In the Mountain Time Zone:

Z = MST + 7 hours
Z = MDT + 6 hours
or
MST = Z - 7 hours
MDT = Z - 6 hours


examples: 11 am MST = 1800Z (6:00 pm GMT)
or
1800 MDT (6:00 pm) = 0000Z (Midnight the next day GMT)

Map of World Time Zones