National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Precipitation in the Pacific Northwest into the Northern Rockies; Bering Sea Storm in Alaska

A Pacific storm will bring rain and high elevation snow from the Pacific Northwest into the Northern Rockies. A series of storms are expected to move through the Bering Sea bringing strong winds, heavy precipitation, and elevated water levels from the West Coast to northern Alaska. Read More >

 

Pictures from around western Colorado and eastern Utah
What is "Z" Time?

Since weather observations and forecasts are provided around the globe, it is important to understand when each piece of data is valid for. To overcome the problem of numerous time zones, it was internationally agreed upon that weather time stamps would be based on the Prime Meridian, or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Other names for GMT include Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) or "Z" Time.
In the Mountain Time Zone:

Z = MST + 7 hours
Z = MDT + 6 hours
or
MST = Z - 7 hours
MDT = Z - 6 hours


examples: 11 am MST = 1800Z (6:00 pm GMT)
or
1800 MDT (6:00 pm) = 0000Z (Midnight the next day GMT)

Map of World Time Zones