Central time now

The clock above shows the CST time in the USA right now. Here are some quick facts about the CT time zone!

• The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone that includes parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Source: Wikipedia
• Central Time Zone is 1 hour behind Eastern Time, 1 hour ahead Mountain and 2 hours ahead of Pacific time.
• There are 9 states within the Central Time Zones in the United States. See below for the interactive US map
• There are an additional 9 states that have some areas within the Central Time Zone.
• Central Time Zone (CT) consists of places that use: Central Standard Time, Central Daylight Time

A time zone is a standard time used in a geographic area. It's the time we've all agreed to follow so it's easier to travel, communicate and barter with people around the world.

These lines aren't straight and neat, many are negotiated and agreed based on the country's needs.

Central time zones can either be Standard or Daylight depending if the region using the zone observes daylight savings time during spring and summer seasons.

Central Standard Time or CST for short is 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC - 6:00). During the months when daylight savings is observed, Central time zone changes to Central Daylight Time or CDT which is 5 hours behind Universal Time (UTC -05:00).

This means that the time zones leveraged in central time zone regions are 7 places behind the starting line of Greenwich.