# Time axis question

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [December 12, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595 "2023-12-12T18:21:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kpm-at-sonnys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@kpm-at-sonnys](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/kpm-at-sonnys)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595/1 "2023-12-12T18:21:57Z")

</div>

Why doesn’t `x:{type:"time"}` make the `x` axis get labelled in local time?

Example: [Time axis question / Ken Martin | Observable](https://observablehq.com/d/301cfd7e8b51955b)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kpm-at-sonnys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@kpm-at-sonnys](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/kpm-at-sonnys)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595/2 "2023-12-12T18:42:05Z")

</div>

Context: I think it should be local based on the [Plot documentation here](https://observablehq.com/plot/features/scales), which says “If the scale type is time, the ticks will be in local time — as with the dates below — rather than UTC.”

So in the example page, since I’m in CST, I’d expect to see noon rather than 5p.

And using vega-lite with the same data, I do.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mythmon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mythmon/32/8504_2.png) [@mythmon](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mythmon)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595/3 "2023-12-12T18:57:04Z")

</div>

Can you share a screenshot of what you see, and what is going wrong? The notebook you shared looks to be working correctly for me. I’m in the Pacific time zone, and I see the chart range from 6:45am to 9am, which seems to be correct and matches Vega.

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/6/63a62f48f2e72476d387bcdd094060163e64c0f2.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kpm-at-sonnys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@kpm-at-sonnys](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/kpm-at-sonnys)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2023, 7:08pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595/4 "2023-12-12T19:08:22Z")

</div>

Well… I can’t! I reloaded the page and it’s working?!

I can’t explain it, but FWIW it was just reading 5PM rather than noon for the rightmost datapoint.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kpm-at-sonnys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@kpm-at-sonnys](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/kpm-at-sonnys)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2023, 7:10pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595/5 "2023-12-12T19:10:06Z")

</div>

It’s also now working on the workbook where I was initially encountering this that inspired me to ask and make a simple example.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CAYdenberg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/caydenberg/32/5322_2.png) [@CAYdenberg](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/CAYdenberg)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2023, 12:41am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595/6 "2023-12-13T00:41:33Z")

</div>

Did you travel recently by any chance?

Firefox (at least) sometimes gets confused about what timezone it’s supposed to be in, and just defaults to UTC. Causes some fascinating bugs in time tracking apps.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kpm-at-sonnys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@kpm-at-sonnys](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/kpm-at-sonnys)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/time-axis-question/8595/7 "2026-09-03T16:34:22Z")

</div>

Great guess! In this case no, but it started working again so I moved on. 🙂
