True solar time · By city
True Solar Time in Vancouver
Auspice ·
温哥华 · 真太阳时
In Vancouver, true solar time runs anywhere from 82 minutes behind the clock to 4 minutes ahead of it. Across every clock minute of 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 39.8% land in a different BaZi hour pillar once corrected (59.3% under daylight saving, 13.5% outside it), and 3.3% on a different day pillar.
How often does the hour pillar change in Vancouver?
| Clock minutes whose hour pillar changes | 39.8% |
| Range across 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 | 36.0% – 43.6% |
| During daylight saving | 59.3% |
| Outside daylight saving | 13.5% |
| Share of minutes under daylight saving | 57.5% |
| Clock minutes whose day pillar changes | 3.3% |
| Correction range | −82 … +4 min |
From the 40-city study on the main true-solar-time page: every clock minute of 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 in the America/Vancouver time zone at 123.12°W, converted to true solar time. Minutes are weighted equally, so this is a per-minute figure, not a per-birth one. Data: /data/solar-time-study.json (CC BY 4.0).
Why the clock and the sun disagree here
Vancouver is at 123.12°W; its standard clock follows the 120°W meridian (UTC−8). The earth turns one degree every four minutes, so the longitude part of the correction is −12 minutes, the same every day of the year. The equation of time adds a seasonal swing of roughly −15 to +16 minutes. Daylight saving adds another −60 minutes whenever it is in force, which was 57.5% of clock minutes across the study years. That is why the rate under daylight saving (59.3%) is so much higher than outside it (13.5%).
Vancouver's clock since 1940
A chart has to use the clock that was in force on the birth date, not today’s. The table below is read directly from the IANA time-zone database the calculator uses, so it lists exactly the offsets a chart for each period is computed with.
| From | Until | Clock | Longitude part | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| already in use in 1940 | 9 February 1942 | UTC−8 | −12 min | — |
| 9 February 1942 | 30 September 1945 | UTC−7 | −72 min | clocks one hour ahead all year |
| 30 September 1945 | 8 March 2026 | UTC−8 | −12 min | plus −60 min in daylight-saving months |
| 8 March 2026 | today | UTC−7 | −72 min | — |
Dates are the local day the clock changed. The longitude part is what the correction would be from longitude alone on that clock.
Daylight-saving rules by year
| Years | Starts | Ends | Clock in summer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1946–1961 | last Sunday of April | last Sunday of September | UTC−7 |
| 1962–1986 | last Sunday of April | last Sunday of October | UTC−7 |
| 1987–2006 | first Sunday of April | last Sunday of October | UTC−7 |
| 2007–2025 | second Sunday of March | first Sunday of November | UTC−7 |
A birth in the week around a change date is worth checking by hand: the same clock reading can fall on either side of it depending on the year.
Worked examples for Vancouver
Each birth is cast twice by the same engine as the calculator: once on the clock time as written, once corrected to true solar time. Same-day convention for the late Rat hour.
15 July 1990, 15:40
A summer afternoon under Pacific Daylight Time.
| By the clock | By the sun | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 15:40 | 14:21 |
| Hour pillar | 丙申 (Monkey hour) | 乙未 (Goat hour) |
| Day pillar | 辛巳 | 辛巳 |
Correction −78 min: daylight saving −60, longitude −12, equation of time −6. The hour pillar changes from 丙申 (Monkey hour) to 乙未 (Goat hour).
15 January 1990, 15:40
The same clock time in January, on standard time.
| By the clock | By the sun | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 15:40 | 15:18 |
| Hour pillar | 甲申 (Monkey hour) | 甲申 (Monkey hour) |
| Day pillar | 庚辰 | 庚辰 |
Correction −22 min: daylight saving 0, longitude −13, equation of time −9. The hour pillar stays 甲申 (Monkey hour).
20 March 2008, 07:30
A March morning in 2008. Before 2007 daylight saving would not yet have started on this date.
| By the clock | By the sun | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 07:30 | 06:09 |
| Hour pillar | 戊辰 (Dragon hour) | 丁卯 (Rabbit hour) |
| Day pillar | 己未 | 己未 |
Correction −80 min: daylight saving −60, longitude −12, equation of time −8. The hour pillar changes from 戊辰 (Dragon hour) to 丁卯 (Rabbit hour).
About the clock in Vancouver
Vancouver is at about 123.1°W, a little west of the 120.0°W meridian that Pacific Time is built on, so on standard time the sun peaks around 12:12 by the clock. That longitude gap is small. Almost all of the difference that matters comes from daylight saving, which moves the clock another hour away from the sun for more than half the year.
British Columbia has changed its clocks every spring and autumn since 1946. The rule has shifted three times since then, in 1962, 1987 and 2007, as the table above shows; the last two moves matched the United States. From February 1942 to September 1945 the clock stayed an hour ahead all year. In 2019 the province passed a law to stay on daylight time permanently, and in 2026 it was brought into force: the clocks went forward for the last time on 8 March 2026 and no longer go back in the autumn. Births from spring 2026 on are recorded on UTC−7 all year round; earlier births follow the seasonal rule in force on that date.
A birth record gives the local clock time and nothing else. Whether daylight saving was on is not written on it, and has to be read off the date.
To apply all of this to one birth, enter the date, clock time and Vancouver as the birthplace in the free BaZi calculator. It uses the same historical clock and the same three-part correction, shows the arithmetic, and needs no account. For why the correction exists at all, see true solar time in BaZi; to check whether another calculator applies it, try the three test birth times.
Other cities: true solar time in Singapore, true solar time in Kuala Lumpur, true solar time in Toronto, true solar time in New York.