MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Daylight saving time evens Santiago de Chile with Argentina and Uruguay

Chile will return to the winter time scheme on April 5, 2025

Chile switched to the summer sunlight-saving time, starting at zero hours last Saturday in most parts of the country, including the Santiago Metropolitan Region, where the electricity supply has gone through severe problems lately.

As a result of the measure, there is no time difference now in these areas of Chile compared to Uruguay or Argentina, among other parts of the region.

On Easter Island and other Chilean possessions in the Pacific Ocean, time changes were enacted accordingly at 10 pm local time on Sept. 7, rhus moving forward to 11 pm ipso facto. Chile's Magallanes Region and Antarctic Territory remained unchanged at UTC-3. UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time with the Greenwich Meridian as a reference. Hence the minus or plus prefixes.

In case of doubt, Chileans were advised to check with the Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOA) website to find out about the different time zones nationwide, or at horaoficial.cl.

As a basic rule, in Continental Chile, the Juan Fernández Archipelago, and the Desventuradas Islands, UTC-3 is used in summer and UTC-4 in winter.

Those who favor daylight saving time argue that it represents earlier sunrises and later dusk hours. Chile will return to the winter time scheme on April 5, 2025.