Western European Time (WET, UTC+00:00), defined legally as Greenwich Mean Time in the United Kingdom, is the time zone covering parts of western and northwestern Europe, and includes the following countries and regions:
- Canary Islands, since 1946 (rest of Spain is CET, i.e. UTC+1)
- Faroe Islands, since 1908
- northeastern Greenland (Danmarkshavn and surrounding area)
- Iceland, since 1968
- Portugal, since 1911 with pauses (except Azores, UTC-1)
- Ireland, 1922 to 1968. Irish Winter Time from 1971, see below.
- The United Kingdom and its dependencies the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Here it is legally known as Greenwich Mean Time and has been in standard use in England, Scotland and Wales since 1847, and Northern Ireland since 1922. Different British time zones have been trialled for short periods during these years.
The nominal span of the time zone is 7.5°E to 7.5°W (0° ± 7.5°), but notably it does not include the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Gibraltar or Spain which use Central European Time (CET), even though these are mostly (France) or completely (the rest) west of 7.5E°. Note also the inclusion of Iceland and eastern Greenland, even though both are west of 15W°
During winter months, the countries above use WET (UK, GMT); however in the summer, most of the above places move one hour ahead to Western European Summer Time (UTC+1), which additionally is known in the UK as British Summer Time (BST) and in Ireland as Irish Standard Time. The only exception is Iceland, which maintains UTC+0 all year round.
Read more about Western European Time: Irish Winter Time, Time Zones of Africa, Historical Uses
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