Our globe rotates around its axis in the direction from west to east. Thus, for us, the Sun appears to be moving in the opposite direction. In the morning we see it in the east, and in the evening - leaning towards the west. But what happens if we change the point of our location and move, for example, a thousand kilometers to the east? It turns out that in this area the Sun appears above the horizon earlier. But in the area lying to the west of the first observation point, the luminary has not yet risen. Thus, at the same time in different parts of the globe, the dials indicate different numbers. So what is the time zone of Europe? This is a region that has the same time.
In general, there are 24 such zones in the world - according to the number of hours in a day. It is important to know that there is a so-called linedate changes. It runs across the Pacific Ocean. When it is noon on March 24 to the west of this line, then to the east it is one in the afternoon, but only on the 23rd. Sets the tone for all time on Earth Greenwich meridian. It is named after a small village near London. Thus, Great Britain (and Ireland, Portugal and Iceland along with it) are included in the zero time zone of Europe. It is denoted by UTC symbol 0.
To the west of it stretches the Atlantic Ocean with a few islands. However, time also exists there. If it is noon in London, then in the UTC-1 zone it is only eleven o'clock in the morning. But in the territories lying east of Greenwich, the day has already come. This European time zone is designated UTC+1. It covers several countries at once - from Spain in the west to Poland in the east. Therefore, the time there is called Western European.
Even further east is the European time zone called UTC+2. It covers Finland, the B altic countries, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. In winter, another belt is formed - Belarus. She does not set the clock on the last Sunday in October back an hour. Thus, from November to March, when it's noon in London, it's three days in Minsk.
Discords the time zones of Europe and the Russian Federation. It also has daylight saving time all year round. Therefore, in June, the difference with Great Britain in Moscow is + 3 hours, and in December + 4. In general, it is difficult to judge that in dividing the Earth into time zones fromgeography, and what - from politics. The southern countries do not switch to daylight saving time, because they do not have a need for this - the sun already rises high above the horizon, and daylight hours are approximately 12 hours. In countries beyond the Polar Belt, the concept of a "day" in December is very arbitrary.
In general, one time zone is not limited to Europe. It runs in a long strip from the North Pole to the South and covers many territories lying in Africa or Asia. If it were not for the political division of territories into states, these belts would divide our planet into 24 identical slices. But for convenience, each country adheres to the same time. For example, the eastern territories of Ukraine still live an hour later than the more western Russian lands. Therefore, the time zones of Europe on the map have many strange bends - their borders pass through the sovereign "cordons" of states.
