Airport in Tennessee
Nashville International Airport (BNA / KBNA) is a major international airport serving Tennessee directly.
Current local time at the airport is 18:57:39.
Daylight saving time changes in Tennessee, United States
Tennessee has 2 listed IANA time zones. 2 observe daylight saving time changes in 2026.
Next change: November 1, 2026
Clock moves back from 02:00 to 01:00 local time.
Best Time to Call Tennessee
Business hours in Tennessee (9 AM-5 PM local time) fall at these local times elsewhere:
- Sao Paulo: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM ( Convenient)
- Frankfurt: 4:00 PM - 12:00 AM (next day) ( Partial overlap)
- Johannesburg: 4:00 PM - 12:00 AM (next day) ( Partial overlap)
- Singapore: 10:00 PM - 6:00 AM (next day) ( Outside normal hours)
- Hong Kong: 10:00 PM - 6:00 AM (next day) ( Outside normal hours)
- Istanbul: 5:00 PM - 1:00 AM (next day) ( Partial overlap)
- Auckland: 3:00 AM (next day) - 11:00 AM (next day) ( Outside normal hours)
Times shown reflect current UTC offsets and may shift by up to an hour around daylight saving transitions.
Time Difference from Tennessee
Compare time in Tennessee with major cities worldwide.
Current Time in Cities of Tennessee, United States
About Time in Tennessee
How Knoxville Argued Its Way Into a Different Time Zone
Before the mid 1940s, every county in Tennessee, from Memphis to the North Carolina line, ran on Central Time. Knoxville changed that through a genuine grassroots campaign rather than any federal decree. Frustration during the wartime, energy saving version of Daylight Saving Time in the 1940s pushed the city's Senior and Junior Chambers of Commerce to organize a formal petition asking that Knoxville be moved into the Eastern time zone instead.
The Junior Chamber of Commerce went further and sponsored legislation proclaiming Eastern Time for the city, a proposal that ultimately landed before the Tennessee Supreme Court in Nashville rather than requiring a city council vote. Once the court upheld it, Knoxville Mayor Cas Walker issued a formal proclamation setting the city onto Eastern Standard Time at midnight on April 27, 1946, according to contemporary reporting in the Knoxville Journal. The nearby community of Oak Ridge followed almost immediately, and Maryville held its own vote to join the switch in August 1947.
Chattanooga wanted in too, but its case initially failed. The federal Interstate Commerce Commission, which controlled time zone boundaries at the time, said it could not find adequate justification for including the city. That changed by 1949, when the ICC reversed course and moved the boundary line to pull Chattanooga out of Central Time and into Eastern, completing the patchwork, county by county campaign that had started with one frustrated city just three years earlier.
A State Whose Political Map Does Not Match Its Time Zone Map
Tennessee is constitutionally organized into three regions called Grand Divisions, East, Middle, and West Tennessee, a structure old enough and important enough that the state constitution requires certain public offices to have representation from all three. Most people assume the Grand Division boundaries and the Eastern/Central time zone boundary are the same line. They are not.
Bledsoe, Cumberland, and Marion counties are legally and constitutionally part of East Tennessee, yet all three sit on the Central Time side of the clock, not Eastern. Just to complicate things further, neighboring Sequatchie County is legally classified as part of Middle Tennessee, but is informally and culturally often treated as part of East Tennessee instead, despite also running on Central Time like its Grand Division would suggest.
The result is a state where asking "what time zone is East Tennessee in" does not have a single clean answer. Roughly 30 of the state's 95 counties keep Eastern Time, covering about 27 percent of Tennessee's land area, while the remaining 65 counties, including three that are legally East Tennessee on paper, all keep Central Time instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time zone is Tennessee in?
Tennessee does not keep a single clock. Its territory uses 2 different UTC offsets: UTC-5 (CDT), UTC-4 (EDT). Nashville, the main city, follows America/Chicago, so check the local time of a specific city before planning a call or a trip.
Is the time in Tennessee the same as in Washington?
No. Nashville, the main city of Tennessee, is currently 1 hour behind Washington, the capital of United States.
Do clocks change in Tennessee?
Yes. The next clock change in Tennessee is on November 1, 2026, when clocks move back from 02:00 to 01:00 local time.
What is the main city of Tennessee?
Nashville is the main city of Tennessee, with a population of about 689,447. The time, sunrise and sunset shown on this page are based on Nashville.
Which airport is closest to Nashville?
Nashville International Airport (BNA) serves Nashville directly. Flight arrival and departure times there are shown in local time.
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