São Tomé and Príncipe Returns to GMT
By Vigdis Hocken. Published 16-Jan-2019
The African island nation São Tomé and Príncipe has changed its local time back again to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) after switching to West African Time (WAT) a year earlier.
São Tomé and Príncipe has gone back to its old time zone.
©iStockphoto.com/EPasqualli
1 Hour Back
On January 1, 2019, clocks in São Tomé and Príncipe were set 1 hour back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the same time as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Last year, on January 1, 2018, São Tomé and Príncipe changed time zones to West African Time (WAT), which is 1 hour ahead of UTC.
Close to Solar Time
Both GMT and WAT are fairly close to the local solar time, with solar noon occurring about half an hour before 12:00 (noon) after the change and about half an hour after that time before the change.
No Daylight Saving Time
Many countries around the world change their clocks for Daylight Saving Time (DST) for parts of the year, but not São Tomé and Príncipe. Seasonal clock changes are fairly meaningless in the tropics, where day lengths hardly vary during the year.