The timezone AST in Qatar

Only 1 nationwide time zone

Standard time:	UTC +3	Arabia Standard Time (AST)
Daylight saving time:	-	none

Qatar has an east-west extension of 0.8 degrees of longitude. Given the country's location in Western Asia, this corresponds to about 82 kilometers. With such a small extent the course of the sun at different positions in the country hardly matters. The position of the sun in the west of the country deviates from that in the east only about 3 minutes. This means the sun rises and sets 3 minutes later in the west than in the east.


The Arabia Standard Time also applies in Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and in Saudi Arabia.

No daylight saving time in Qatar

Due to the sun's orbit around the equator, the days are longer in summer (June to September in the northern hemisphere). Countries that switch to daylight saving time in the summer months align the daylight phase with the human rhythm. Unused bright morning hours are thus shifted into the evening (more information on daylight saving time here).

Due to the relative proximity to the equator, the impact in Qatar is not particularly large. Doha is only 2,800 km from the equator. A day in midsummer would then not last from 04:43 to 18:28, but from 05:43 to 19:28. The effect would be quite noticeable in the evening, but the sun rising later in the morning falls at a time when many people are already awake. Thus, daylight saving time was never introduced in Qatar.