Summer daylight saving moves Tonga 14 hours ahead of UTC [1]
Thursday, October 27, 2016 - 17:59. Updated on Friday, October 28, 2016 - 09:36.
Tonga has decided to adopt daylight saving and will advance its clock one hour ahead on Sunday, November 6 for two-months, in order to allow more daylight hours in the evening during the longer summer days
Other countries in the region Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand have daylight saving for periods during the summer months when daylight hours are longer.
Tonga's Meteorology Department advises that clocks and watches are to be moved ahead one hour at 2:00am (to 3:00am) on Sunday November 6, 2016. After two months the time will be turned back one hour at 3:00am (to 2:00am) on Sunday January 15, 2017.
They stated that it was decided by Cabinet on Friday, October 21 as a means of extending daylight hours in the evenings to allow for more time for economic and social activities.
"Daylight saving will mean that Tonga time will move to 14-hours ahead of the Universal Time Coordinated (UTC+14hrs) during the period of daylight saving."
Tonga has tried to use daylight saving previously. Daylight saving was introduced ahead of the new Millennium in 1999 but was stopped in 2002.