Time difference between Warsaw and Honolulu

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 Warsaw goes forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October and Honolulu does not change its clocks.

Honolulu stays put all year while Warsaw moves, so a meeting fixed in Honolulu's calendar shifts by an hour twice a year at Warsaw's end.

About Warsaw and Honolulu

Poland sits at the eastern edge of Central European Time, so its clocks run further from the sun than any other country in the zone — sunrise in Warsaw in December is after 7:40 while Madrid, three time-zone-widths west, is on the same clock.

Hawaii is UTC−10 and does not change its clocks, so it drifts an hour further from the mainland every March. It is the furthest behind of any populated US zone, and the overlap with a European working day is essentially nil.

What 12 hours actually costs you

There is no shared working hour at all. Nine to five in Warsaw is 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM in Honolulu. 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 least painful slot is 5:00 AM in Warsaw, which is 5:00 PM in Honolulu. That is 4 hours outside somebody's working day and it is the smallest that gap gets — every other hour of the clock costs more.

At 12 hours the two are far enough apart that the date stops matching. Midday in Warsaw is 12:00 AM the same day in Honolulu, 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 Warsaw and nine-to-five in Honolulu do not overlap at all. With 12 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.

Warsaw

Honolulu

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How far apart Warsaw and Honolulu are

The shortest path over the Earth's surface between the two is 11,837 km (7,355 miles). Flown along that line, an airliner at cruising speed takes roughly 14 hours 45 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 12 hours of clock, which is where jet lag comes from: the body shifts by about an hour a day, so 12 hours takes most people 12 days or so to absorb. Flying west to Honolulu is the easier direction — you gain the hours, and staying up later comes more naturally than going to bed early.

Warsaw to Honolulu, hour by hour

On the usual gap of 12 hours.

Frequently asked questions