GeoNames Forum

Dear GeoName Team,

I have confused over two cities that is Colonia and Kolonia. Both are in Micronesia. As per GeoName database, both are following "Pacific/Ponape" timezone that is having standard offset value of +11 hours from UTC/GMT.

However, as per timendate.com website, Colonia Yap state, MIcronesia is using "Pacific/Yap" timezone that is having +10 hours timezone from UTC/GMT. Due to this difference there are 1 hours difference in sunrise and sunset.

Thus I request you to give some input on this issue.

Thanks for your reply and valuable suggestions.

Thanks
Kumar Shorav

Hi Kumar

It seems that FM-Micronesia uses 2 TimeZones (138° to 163° Longitude) >>
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/pacific/micronesia/

TZ 10 for the States of Chuuk (frmr Truk) and Yap (with Colonia)
TZ 11 for the States of Kosrae and Pohnpei (frmr Ponape - with Kolonia)

The TimeZones in the FM.txt are not correct, but I don't have an authoritative source for this.
Marc ???

Regards
Urs

@Marc
Wie kommt man jetzt auf GoogleMaps? Ich schaffe es nur auf die leere Weltkarte...

I don't understand this thread. Colonia with geoNameId 7648112 has the timezoneId Pacific/Chuuk. This seems to be correct.

The iana timezone database has three timezones for FM

FM +0725+15147 Pacific/Chuuk Chuuk (Truk) and Yap
FM +0658+15813 Pacific/Pohnpei Pohnpei (Ponape)
FM +0519+16259 Pacific/Kosrae Kosrae

I have found some features in FM where the timezoneId did not correspond with the admin1. I have updated these (mostly spots).

Regards

Marc

@Urs: heisst das du verwendest di nomalen links und siehst keine Karte mehr? Kannst du ein refresh machen? Welchen Browser verwendest du?

Dear Urs,

Thanks for your quick response and valuable suggestion to make me come out from confusion. So, in this case, what should i do; all authentic site is following +10 hrs from UTC for the mentioned place in the previous mail.

So is it correct to follow +10hrs for the place i mentioned.

Thanks/Regards
Kumar Shorav

Hi Kumar

The TimeZone Webservice returns the correct data for all 4 States of Micronesia.
For Yap >>> http://api.geonames.org/timezoneJSON?lat=9.3647&lng=138.0836&radius=200&username=demo
> it returns the correct time and the correct TimeZone = 10 (named Chuuk).

A problem is in the download files, I use the FM.zip/txt (of 30.06.2013).
Here all of Micronesia is either in the TZ 'Kosrae' or 'Pohnpei' - both States are in the TZ 11 !
Marc ???

The naming of the TZ is not an exact science. If someone would name a zone 'Monaco' or as the suburb where he lives, he is free to do it...

The Navies use the maritime TZs (±7.5° around a multiple of 15° Longitude) and call it by a letter of the alphabet.
With the civil TZs 13 and 14, or with 30min TZs, this does not work; there are not enough letters and no 'decimal' letters.

The only correct way to describe a TZ is the standard time offset to GMT/UTC... but some nations love their own TZ...

Regards
Urs

Hi

The UTC offsets only work for regions without DST. The iana timezone identifiers are 'officially' approved and allow to calculate the time with DST in the past and the future (as already known). Most programming environments (like java) have native support for the iana timezone identifiers. All you need is this identifier and the system will tell you the exact clock time.

When I look at the files then I see Pacific/Chuuk in the FM.txt for geonameid 7648112.

Regards

Marc

Hi Marc

You are right, ID7648112, a rock in the coral rim of the Chuuk Atoll, has the TimeZone 'Chuuk/Truk', the one and only with this TimeZone in the whole FM.txt.

The question was about Colonia in the Yap Islands...

All other some 1700 toponyms in the western States of 03-Chuuk/Truk and 04-Yap have the TimeZone 'Pohnpei/Ponape (or none)...
...and this is FALSE, they are all in the zone 'Chuuk/Truk'.
The zone 'Pohnpei' has an offset of +11, while 'Chuuk' has an offset of +10.

As the TimeZone-Webservice returns the correct answers and Kumar detected an error... he used a download file...

Regards
Urs

Hi Urs

GeoNameId 7648112 is Colonia:
http://www.geonames.org/7648112/colonia.html
Maybe you have been looking at some corrupt file.

Regards

Marc