Time difference between Lisbon and Los Angeles

The gap is not the same all year

Every converter gives one number for this pair. That number is right for most of the year and wrong for part of it, because Lisbon goes forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October and Los Angeles goes forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November.

Both change their clocks and both are in the northern hemisphere, but not on the same weekend — Lisbon goes forward on the last Sunday in March and Los Angeles on the second Sunday in March. For the days in between, the gap is neither party's expected figure, and a standing meeting silently moves by an hour. That mismatch is a common cause of a missed international call.

About Lisbon and Los Angeles

Portugal keeps UTC, an hour behind neighbouring Spain despite sitting further west than most of it. The country tried Central European Time from 1992 to 1996 and abandoned it after schoolchildren were leaving home in the dark, which is the clearest natural experiment anyone has run on the question.

Los Angeles is UTC−8 in winter and UTC−7 from March to November. California voted in 2018 to move to permanent daylight saving and has not been able to: the change needs an act of Congress, which has not come.

What 8 hours actually costs you

There is no shared working hour at all. Nine to five in Lisbon is 1:00 AM to 9:00 AM in Los Angeles. Somebody has to be outside their working day, and the only question is who — so the useful thing is to decide that once rather than rediscover it every time.

The closest the two working days come is 5:00 PM in Lisbon, which is 9:00 AM in Los Angeles — both inside office hours, just barely. That is the slot to use, and it is the one people who work this pair already default to.

At 8 hours the two are far enough apart that the date stops matching. Midday in Lisbon is 4:00 AM the same day in Los Angeles, but the ends of the working day do cross. "Tomorrow morning" means different things to the two of you, and a deadline given without a date attached will be missed by one side or the other.

When they can both be at their desks

Nine-to-five in Lisbon and nine-to-five in Los Angeles do not overlap at all. With 8 hours between them, one side is always outside working hours, and the practical question is which side takes the early start or the late finish rather than when to meet.

Lisbon

Los Angeles

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How far apart Lisbon and Los Angeles are

The shortest path over the Earth's surface between the two is 9,121 km (5,667 miles). Flown along that line, an airliner at cruising speed takes roughly 11 hours 30 minutes in the air — actual routings add to it, and whether a nonstop service exists depends on the airlines rather than the distance.

Over that distance you cross 8 hours of clock, which is where jet lag comes from: the body shifts by about an hour a day, so 8 hours takes most people 8 days or so to absorb. Flying west to Los Angeles is the easier direction — you gain the hours, and staying up later comes more naturally than going to bed early.

Lisbon to Los Angeles, hour by hour

On the usual gap of 8 hours.

Frequently asked questions