Zulu Time (UTC)
Live Zulu clock | Local ↔ Zulu converter | Military DTG and NOTAM times | Military time zones from Alfa to Zulu
From local time to Zulu (and back)
Decode a date-time group
Formats: DDHHMM + zone letter + month + year (DTG), DDHHMMZ (METAR, current month), YYMMDDHHMM (NOTAM, always UTC).Military time zones from Alfa to Zulu
Every whole-hour time zone has a letter, spoken with the NATO alphabet: “Alfa time” is UTC+1, “Zulu time” is UTC. J (Juliett) means the writer’s local time. The time on the right updates live.
| Letter | Name | Offset | Examples (standard time) | Time now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Alfa time | UTC+1 | Central Europe: Rome, Paris, Berlin (standard time) | --:-- |
| B | Bravo time | UTC+2 | Central Europe (summer time), Athens, Cairo | --:-- |
| C | Charlie time | UTC+3 | Moscow, Istanbul, Riyadh | --:-- |
| D | Delta time | UTC+4 | Dubai, Baku | --:-- |
| E | Echo time | UTC+5 | Pakistan, Maldives | --:-- |
| F | Foxtrot time | UTC+6 | Bangladesh | --:-- |
| G | Golf time | UTC+7 | Thailand, Vietnam, Jakarta | --:-- |
| H | Hotel time | UTC+8 | China, Singapore, Perth | --:-- |
| I | India time | UTC+9 | Japan, South Korea | --:-- |
| K | Kilo time | UTC+10 | Sydney (standard time), Guam | --:-- |
| L | Lima time | UTC+11 | Solomon Islands, New Caledonia | --:-- |
| M | Mike time | UTC+12 | New Zealand (standard time), Fiji | --:-- |
| N | November time | UTC-1 | Azores, Cape Verde | --:-- |
| O | Oscar time | UTC-2 | South Georgia | --:-- |
| P | Papa time | UTC-3 | Buenos Aires, São Paulo | --:-- |
| Q | Quebec time | UTC-4 | Caracas, Halifax (standard time) | --:-- |
| R | Romeo time | UTC-5 | New York (standard time), Bogotá | --:-- |
| S | Sierra time | UTC-6 | Chicago (standard time), Mexico City | --:-- |
| T | Tango time | UTC-7 | Denver (standard time), Phoenix | --:-- |
| U | Uniform time | UTC-8 | Los Angeles (standard time) | --:-- |
| V | Victor time | UTC-9 | Alaska (standard time) | --:-- |
| W | Whiskey time | UTC-10 | Hawaii | --:-- |
| X | X-ray time | UTC-11 | American Samoa, Niue | --:-- |
| Y | Yankee time | UTC-12 | Baker and Howland Islands (uninhabited) | --:-- |
| Z | Zulu time | UTC | UTC; London, Lisbon and Dublin in winter, Reykjavík | --:-- |
| J | Juliett time | — | Local time of the writer or reader | --:-- |
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What is Zulu time?
Zulu time is simply Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The name comes from the military time zones: the reference zone, with zero offset, is marked with the letter Z, spoken “Zulu” in the NATO alphabet.
It is used wherever everyone needs the same clock: aviation (flight plans, METAR, TAF and NOTAM are always in UTC), the military, shipping, meteorology and space missions. In computing, the trailing “Z” of an ISO 8601 timestamp such as 2026-09-11T14:30:00Z means UTC too.
From local time to Zulu
Subtract your UTC offset from your local time:
- London: Zulu = local time in winter (GMT), local − 1 during British Summer Time (UTC+1, letter Alfa)
- Central Europe: local − 1 in winter (CET, Alfa), local − 2 in summer (CEST, Bravo)
- New York: local + 5 in winter (EST, Romeo), local + 4 in summer (EDT)
Watch out for midnight: 01:00 on 12 July in Rome is 23:00Z on 11 July.
Are UTC and GMT the same?
In everyday use they show the same time, but they are not the same thing. GMT began as mean solar time at the Greenwich meridian and today is mainly the name of the UK’s winter time. UTC is the international standard based on atomic clocks, kept within 0.9 seconds of the Earth’s rotation by occasionally adding a leap second.
In 2022 the General Conference on Weights and Measures decided to phase out leap seconds by 2035. Zulu time is UTC, and it never changes with daylight saving time: local time does.
The date-time group (DTG)
Military messages write date and time as a DTG (date-time group): 111430Z SEP 26 means day 11, 14:30, zone Z (UTC), September 2026. The letter may refer to another zone: 111630B SEP 26 is the same moment in Bravo time (UTC+2).
Aviation uses variations on the same idea: in METAR reports the group 111420Z gives the day and time of the observation, while NOTAMs give start and end of validity as 2609111430 (year, month, day, hours, minutes, always UTC). The decoder above understands all of them.
How to read a Zulu time
Zulu times are always written in 24-hour format with no separator: 0730Z, 1430Z. On the radio they are read digit by digit: 1430Z is “one four three zero Zulu”.
When the context is clear, often only the minutes are said (“at three zero” for xx:30). Midnight is written 0000 and belongs to the day that begins. For other radio words see radio phrases: Roger, Wilco, Say again…