Time in Rhode Island

Time in Rhode Island, as in all US states, is regulated by the United States Department of Transportation.^[1] Rhode Island is in the Eastern Time Zone (ET) and observes daylight saving time (DST).

Time in Rhode Island

	Time	UTC
Standard time (winter)	Eastern Standard Time (EST)	UTC−05:00
Daylight time (summer)	Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)	UTC−04:00

Independent of daylight saving time, solar noon in Rhode Island on the March equinox is about 11:53, which is earlier than most areas of the United States. The state is small enough that geographical location only results in a difference of a few minutes.

United States time zones

Solar noon (independent of DST)^[2]

Date (approx.)	Location
	Westerly	Providence	Little Compton
March equinox	11:54	11:52	11:52
June solstice	11:49	11:47	11:46
September equinox	11:40	11:39	11:38
December solstice	11:45	11:44	11:43

Like the other five New England states, which also use the Eastern Time Zone, sunset in the winter in Rhode Island can occur as early as 4:30 p.m. Most of the New England states have considered using the Atlantic Time Zone without daylight saving to mitigate this. While Rhode Island considered such a bill in 2016,^[3] it would only take effect if Massachusetts did the same.^[4]

IANA time zone database

The IANA time zone database identifier for Rhode Island is America/New_York.^[5]

See also

Time in New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont