CST — Central Standard Time

Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and is used across the central United States, parts of Canada, and most of Mexico. Major cities in this zone include Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Mexico City. It is the time zone with the largest geographic coverage in the contiguous United States, stretching from the western shores of the Great Lakes down through Texas and into Central America.

The Central time zone plays a critical role in North American commerce and agriculture. Chicago, the zone's most prominent city, serves as a major hub for commodities trading through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The zone also encompasses much of the American agricultural heartland, and planting and harvest schedules across the Midwest have historically been tied to Central time.

Like Eastern time, Central Standard Time observes daylight saving time, shifting clocks forward one hour to Central Daylight Time (CDT, UTC-5) from March through November. Mexico City and most of Mexico observed DST until 2022, when Mexico abolished the practice for most of the country, with the exception of border municipalities that continue to follow U.S. DST rules.