Pacific Time (PT)
Seattle operates on Pacific Time (PT). Seattle observes Daylight Saving Time, springing forward one hour in March and falling back in November. During DST, the abbreviation changes to reflect the shift.
Time Zone: Pacific Time (PT) — Standard Offset: UTC-8 (PST) — DST Offset: UTC-7 (PDT)
Country: United States
This city observes Daylight Saving Time, so the UTC offset changes twice per year. Always verify the current offset when scheduling across time zones.
Seattle shares Pacific Time with San Francisco and Los Angeles. The city is home to Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing's commercial division, Starbucks, and Costco. Amazon's influence alone makes Seattle a critical time zone for global e-commerce and cloud computing — AWS, the world's largest cloud platform, is headquartered here. When Seattle-based teams make infrastructure decisions, they affect services worldwide.
Washington State observes DST, shifting between PST (UTC-8) and PDT (UTC-7). The state legislature passed a bill in 2019 to adopt permanent DST, but it requires Congressional approval. Seattle's northern latitude means dramatic seasonal daylight variation — over 16 hours of daylight at the summer solstice but under 8.5 hours in December, making the DST debate particularly relevant here.
Seattle's position as the closest major US city to Asia makes it a natural gateway for trans-Pacific trade and business. The Port of Seattle handles billions in trade with China, Japan, and South Korea. Pacific Time's relationship with Asian time zones (15-17 hours behind) is challenging, but Seattle's proximity and cultural connections to Asia mean many businesses here routinely work across the Pacific time gap.
Like other PT cities, Seattle faces a tough overlap challenge with Europe and Asia. Morning PT meetings (7-9 AM) catch London at 3-5 PM — the best window. For Asian partners, late afternoon Seattle time (4-6 PM PT) reaches the following morning in Tokyo (9-11 AM JST) and Hong Kong (8-10 AM HKT). Seattle's tech culture embraces asynchronous work partly out of necessity given these time zone realities.