Sidama Region, Ethiopia
Sidama Region keeps East Africa Time, the UTC+3 standard used throughout Ethiopia. Hawassa is the principal city for time lookups, while sunrise changes through the year and should be calculated for the specific locality.
Awasa, Ethiopia
Saturday, 5 September 2026
UTC+3 · Africa/Addis_Ababa
Time and sun data for Awasa — the largest city of Sidama Region
The sun in Awasa
Sunrise 6:19 AM Solar noon 12:26 PM Sunset 6:33 PM Daylight 12 h 14 min Night 11 h 46 min Civil twilight 5:58 AM – 6:54 PM
Ethiopia · 5 cities
Largest cities
- Awasa 422 200
- Yirga ‘Alem 81 600
All cities
Current time in Sidama Region, Ethiopia
Sidama’s official clocks agree with those elsewhere in Ethiopia. The region has no separate offset arising from its administrative status, language, or geography. Selecting Hawassa, Addis Ababa, or another Ethiopian city in a world-clock application should display the same civil time.
Ethiopia does not apply a daylight-saving clock shift. UTC+3 remains the useful conversion reference in every season. This consistency is helpful for travel bookings and recurring meetings, though anyone calling from abroad must also check whether the other location changes time seasonally.
The label EAT means East Africa Time. It is a civil standard, not a promise that noon on a clock will coincide exactly with the sun’s highest point. Standard time lets communities coordinate even when their local solar positions differ.
Sidama’s coffee may deserve patient timing; its time zone needs only the simple recipe UTC plus three.
Hawassa and other Sidama centres
Hawassa is Sidama’s capital and largest urban focus. The city lies beside Lake Hawassa and is the clearest regional choice for weather, sunrise, and time-zone searches. Its name is sometimes rendered Awasa, especially in older English-language databases.
Other useful locations within Sidama include: Yirgalem, also written Irgalem in some references Aleta Wendo, a town south of Hawassa Leku, near the regional capital Daye, serving communities farther south
Spellings vary because Ethiopian place names are transliterated from local scripts and languages. A variant spelling does not imply a different place or time zone, but adding the country and region helps prevent a search tool from choosing the wrong result.
Population rankings can differ according to whether a source counts municipal residents, built-up areas, or administrative districts. It is safer to describe these as important urban centres than to assign unsupported positions. They all keep the same regional and national time.
Planning around sunrise in Sidama
A sunrise value for Hawassa is not automatically exact for Yirgalem, Aleta Wendo, or a rural community. Their coordinates differ, and the surrounding terrain can affect when the sun becomes visible. The clock remains identical even when dawn reaches landscapes at slightly different moments.
Sidama’s location near the equator gives it a comparatively balanced pattern of day and night. Nevertheless, sunrise and sunset drift during the year. A current-time display and a solar calendar answer two different questions and should not be confused.
Weather also affects experience rather than the astronomical event itself. Cloud can hide the sun after its calculated rise, and hills or buildings can obscure a low eastern horizon. Select Hawassa or the nearest Sidama town.
Confirm the date and the UTC+3 display. Check whether the service reports sunrise, dawn, or first light. Allow for local terrain when visibility matters.
Questions and answers
- What is Sidama Region’s time-zone abbreviation?
- It is EAT, meaning East Africa Time.
- Is Hawassa one hour different from Addis Ababa?
- No. Hawassa and Addis Ababa use the same UTC+3 civil time.
- Does the sunrise listing equal first visible sunlight?
- Not always. Terrain, structures, haze, and cloud may affect when the sun can actually be seen.