From a1eef9870ca2916dc43a2f32dc89fffd1414805d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "J. Nick Koston" <nick@home-assistant.io>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2026 01:28:23 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] cleanup

---
 esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp | 5 ++---
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp b/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp
index 029c0c9995..b7d4fc94aa 100644
--- a/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/time/real_time_clock.cpp
@@ -111,9 +111,8 @@ void RealTimeClock::synchronize_epoch_(uint32_t epoch) {
 void RealTimeClock::apply_timezone_(const char *tz) {
   ParsedTimezone parsed{};
 
-  // Handle null input
-  if (tz == nullptr) {
-    ESP_LOGW(TAG, "Failed to parse timezone: (null)");
+  // Handle null or empty input - use UTC
+  if (tz == nullptr || *tz == '\0') {
     set_global_tz(parsed);
     return;
   }