California operates on Pacific Standard Time (PST) during winter months, which is 8 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-8). During daylight saving time, observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, California switches to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), which is UTC-7.
All of California follows the same time zone. Major cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, and Sacramento all observe Pacific Time. This makes scheduling across California straightforward, as there's no time difference within the state.
California is home to Silicon Valley, making Pacific Time one of the most important time zones for global tech business. When it's 9 AM in California, it's already 5 PM in London and past midnight in Tokyo.