What Time Is It?

by Icelandic Roots

‘Tis the season! We’re well into Autumn in North America and, along with that comes the day where we turn our clocks back an hour. Fewer in Canada will make that adjustment this year. Some provinces/territories, or parts thereof, have chosen not to “fall back”, but rather, they will be staying on the same time as they’ve had all summer.  

AI Generated image using Co-Pilot.

This change prompts folks to re-evaluate scheduled activities particularly where they include a different time zone. For us at Icelandic Roots, it alters how we are scheduling member and public events.

We offer member only events with Samtal, Book Club, Roots Tips, and occasional seminars. To the general public, there are webinars on numerous Icelandic related topics. As these activities are attended using Zoom, and it is imperative to publish the correct times for people to join.

HOW TO FIND THE TIME CONVERTER

Here is some guidance that should make it easier:

• We are using a website called Time and Date. It has a simple time zone converter that is very user friendly.

  - Time and Date: Time Zone Converter – Time Difference Calculator.

  - select the TIME ZONES tab - from the drop down choices, select TIME ZONE CONVERTER

• Remember to always select the correct date of the activity when searching for your time zone.

  
  

• The clock may give you the 24-hour version, therefore 5:00 PM in Iceland could read 1700h (hours). Or, 1:00 PM would read as 1300h (12 noon plus one hour). Each AM time will read as 9:00 or 0900h.

Our IR activities will now be scheduled based on Iceland’s GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), whereas before we had used North Dakota and Central time.

In the Time Zone Converter screen enter "Reykjavik" as the first time zone location for 5:00 PM and the specific date of the activity. Once complete, Reykjavik's details will show at the top.

Next, enter the city within your time zone. In this example, we've used Fargo ND. You will note that Fargo is 6 hours behind Reykjavik for Monday, November 2, and the time to join the activity will be 11:00 AM.

If other cities are required, continue to enter the name under the "Add Location" and a list will be generated.

A screenshot taken from Time and Date website using Reykjavik as the starting point of 5:00 PM. Inserting Fargo in the "Add Location" gives 11:00 AM as the time to join an event. For another city, simply insert the name under "Add Location" and the site will calculate the time.

BE READY FOR THE NEW TIMES FOR SAMTAL HOUR THIS WEEK (2 NOV)

Here is how it will work for Samtal in November, our first activity held with the new time zone designations. All one has to be aware of is the time zone they reside in or, if on holidays or business travel, enter the main city in the area to get your start time.  

SAMTAL: Monday, 2 November 2026

5:00 PM GMT   Reykjavik, Iceland    London, England

1:00 PM    AST   Halifax, Canada                                         

12:00 PM  EST  Toronto, Canada

                            Winnipeg, Canada                                    

                            Washington DC, USA                               

11:00 AM CST  Regina, Canada                                       

                           Calgary, Canada                                       

                           Fargo, USA                                             

10:00 AM MST  Victoria, Canada                                       

 9:00  AM  PST  Seattle, USA                

This pattern should be the one used for most of our IR activities. As we have done in the past, we will continue to post times in both our newsletters Rætur Fréttir/Roots News (public) and Samkoma Member News (members only) and on the IR Event Calendar.

Icelandic Roots will endeavour to keep the scheduled times easy to follow for all participants. We certainly don’t want anyone missing their favourite session sharing with cousins.

See you on Zoom!