Time Zone Nerd

One thing that my job has taught me is that I am a time zone nerd. On a recent project, I had to put the finishing touches on my calling list by researching the time zones of some of the contacts. Some states and area codes are in more than one time zone, so I had to look up the ambiguous ones. Fortunately, we have a field for the county in the database, so I was able to learn the time zones pretty easily. Time zone boundaries conform to county boundaries.

I discovered that I enjoyed doing these lookups. I suspect that there is not much of a need for this type of knowledge or skill, as Google Maps does not show time zone boundaries. When I googled “Does Google Maps show time zone boundaries?” I found a link to a Google Group in which someone had asked why not. Another person replied that Google has apparently not seen a need to do so. Mapquest does not give time zone information, either. I had to consult my Rand-McNally Road Atlas, or type “What time zone is Sullivan County, Tennessee in?” (Eastern).

I know few other people who know things about time zones in the United States that I know. I remember a meeting a few years ago. It took some effort to get across the idea that most of Texas is in the Central Time Zone, but El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone.

Indiana is now less confusing than it used to be. It used to be that some counties in Indiana did not observe Daylight Saving Time. All of Indiana now observes Daylight Saving Time, but some counties have switched time zones. One must have an up to date map to determine the time zone for a specific county in Indiana.

Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time, so I treat them as part of the Pacific Time Zone during the warm months, except for the parts of Arizona taken up by the Navajo Reservation. The Navajo Nation observes Daylight Saving Time since their territory is in three different states. Alaska observes Daylight Saving Time, but Hawaii does not.

I am curious as to why Google Maps and Mapquest do not include time zone information in their search results. There must be other people who need to know the correct time in places they call or plan to visit. Perhaps they think that exceptions to Daylight Saving Time observance will confuse people. Perhaps the cartographers at Google Maps and Mapquest do not understand time zones.

For now, I plan to not throw away my Rand-McNally Road Atlas. I plan to continue to purchase a new one every two or three years. It would be fun to hire myself out as a time zone consultant.