| The tropical cyclone forecasts/advisories are issued at times using a system based on
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). (In nonastronomical circles, it is sometimes called
World Time, Z Time, or Zulu.) This system is used internationally so that forecasters
throughout the world don't have to know the time zones of the data they are using. The
table below shows how to convert from UTC time into military and civil time. In the
example forecast/advisory, the time is given in the 5th line of the header as 0900Z. As
indicated in the table below, 0900Z would be 5 a.m. EDT. For late-season storms that
happen on standard time, the offset between Z time and EST would be +3 hours instead of +4
hrs. |
