UTC6

UTC-6 is a time offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) equal to minus six hours. It is used as a standard time in several regions and serves as the daylight-saving offset in others. The offset is most commonly associated with the Central Time Zone of North America, where many areas observe Central Standard Time (UTC-6) during the non-summer months and switch to Central Daylight Time (UTC-5) in the summer.

Beyond North America, UTC-6 is used year-round in several Central American countries, including Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In addition, parts of Canada, such as the province of Saskatchewan, use UTC-6 year-round and do not observe daylight saving time. The use of UTC-6 in these regions means that local clocks remain six hours behind UTC throughout the year.

For scheduling and timekeeping, UTC-6 provides a stable reference point when coordinating activities across Central Time zones and the countries in Central America. In practice, local time labels (CST, CDT, or year-round UTC-6) reflect both the standard offset and any daylight-saving adjustments, which can vary by jurisdiction.

In time zone databases, UTC-6 is represented under several zone identifiers corresponding to the local regions that observe it, such as those for Belize, Guatemala, and Regina, among others. The overall concept remains that UTC-6 is six hours behind UTC, with regional differences in daylight saving practices.

See also: Coordinated Universal Time, list of time zones, daylight saving time.