Article Arizona time
What time is it in Arizona?
The banal question of what time it is takes on a more adventurous feel in Arizona. The advantage is that here, as in one of the two states of the USA (along with Hawaii), winter and summer time do not change. They said goodbye to this „convenience“ in Arizona already in 1968. Arizona is a very hot area, summer temperatures here routinely exceed 40 °C. Thus, most Arizonans prefer activities in the cooler evening hours, and daylight saving time would mean intense heat and sunshine into the late evening hours.
Nevertheless, there are simultaneously two times differing from each other by one hour. These are Mountain Standard Time (MST) and Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). To make things even more complicated, MDT, unlike MST, changes summer and winter time.
When answering what time it is, it is therefore necessary to specify according to which time.
MST is the official Arizona Time, while MDT is used in the Northeast on the Navajo Reservation. They introduced this time in their territory in order to distinguish themselves and unify the time in the entire territory of the Navajo reservation (Navajo Nation), which also extends to the surrounding states.
The Indians control some tourist attractions on the territory of their reservation (e.g. Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon), where it is necessary to reserve entrance at the exact time. For understandable reasons, mistakes and confusion often occurred among tourists. That's why the Navajo finally established a rule that MST applies to major tourist attractions.
However, this is the end of the confusion. Therefore, it is necessary to always be interested in whether MST or MDT time is meant. The difference is 1 hour in summer.
An interesting fact is that because the Navajo area is fragmented, if you are driving through Arizona, your time on mobile phones and in online navigation may jump back and forth several times depending on the current location. The extreme is that if you drive east from Tuba City, the time will change a total of six times during the 135 km stretch.
