diff --git a/R/Load.R b/R/Load.R
index cded9565fe77ae89528bd4c701d171982647c795..6b136ec90e904d15c6da40ba3d6f5b1074932ae2 100644
--- a/R/Load.R
+++ b/R/Load.R
@@ -1553,7 +1553,7 @@ Load <- function(var, exp = NULL, obs = NULL, sdates, nmember = NULL,
   # the current date.
   if (is.null(exp) || dims == 0) {
     if (is.null(leadtimemax)) {
-      diff <- Sys.time() - as.POSIXct(sdates[1], format = '%Y%m%d')
+      diff <- Sys.time() - as.POSIXct(sdates[1], format = '%Y%m%d', tz = "UTC")
       if (diff > 0) {
         .warning("Loading observations only and no 'leadtimemax' specified. Data will be loaded from each starting date to current time.")
         if (storefreq == 'monthly') { 
@@ -1709,7 +1709,7 @@ Load <- function(var, exp = NULL, obs = NULL, sdates, nmember = NULL,
           }
           day <- as.integer(day)
           startdate <- as.POSIXct(paste(substr(sdate, 1, 4), '-',
-                       substr(sdate, 5, 6), '-', day, ' 12:00:00', sep = '')) + 
+                       substr(sdate, 5, 6), '-', day, ' 12:00:00', sep = ''), tz = "UTC") + 
                        (leadtimemin - 1) * 86400
           year <- as.integer(substr(startdate, 1, 4))
           month <- as.integer(substr(startdate, 6, 7))
@@ -2226,9 +2226,11 @@ Load <- function(var, exp = NULL, obs = NULL, sdates, nmember = NULL,
       function(x) {
         do.call(c, lapply((0:(number_ftime - 1)) * sampleperiod,
           function(y) {
-            addTime(as.POSIXct(x, format = "%Y%m%d"), store_period, y + leadtimemin - 1)
+            addTime(as.POSIXct(x, format = "%Y%m%d", tz = "UTC"), store_period, y + leadtimemin - 1)
           }))
       }))
+    attr(dates[["start"]], "tzone") <- "UTC"
+
     # end is similar to start, but contains the end dates of each forecast 
     # time step
     dates[["end"]] <- do.call(c, lapply(dates[["start"]],
@@ -2238,6 +2240,7 @@ Load <- function(var, exp = NULL, obs = NULL, sdates, nmember = NULL,
             addTime(y, store_period)
           }))
       }))
+    attr(dates[["end"]], "tzone") <- "UTC"
 
     tags_to_find <- c('START_DATE', 'MEMBER_NUMBER', 'YEAR', 'MONTH', 'DAY')
     position_of_tags <- na.omit(match(tags_to_find, names(replace_values)))
@@ -2249,14 +2252,19 @@ Load <- function(var, exp = NULL, obs = NULL, sdates, nmember = NULL,
       models <- list()
       for (jmod in 1:length(exp)) {
         member_names <- paste0("Member_", 1:nmember[jmod])
-        models[[exp[[jmod]][["name"]]]] <- list(
-          InitializationDates = lapply(member_names,
+
+        InitializationDates <- do.call(c, lapply(member_names,
             function(x) {
               do.call(c, lapply(sdates, function(y) {
-                as.POSIXct(y, format = "%Y%m%d")
+                as.POSIXct(y, format = "%Y%m%d", tz = "UTC")
               }))
-            }),
+            }))
+        attr(InitializationDates, "tzone") <- "UTC"
+
+        models[[exp[[jmod]][["name"]]]] <- list(
+          InitializationDates = InitializationDates,
           Members = member_names)
+
         names(models[[exp[[jmod]][["name"]]]]$InitializationDates) <- member_names
         attr(models[[exp[[jmod]][["name"]]]], 'dataset') <- exp[[jmod]][["name"]]
         attr(models[[exp[[jmod]][["name"]]]], 'source') <- {