Daylight Saving Time 2026: Start and End Dates, Rules and the Years Ahead

Daylight saving time ended for 2026 at 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when clocks in most of the United States fell back one hour to 1:00 a.m. It had started at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 8, 2026, when clocks sprang forward to 3:00 a.m. The next change is Sunday, March 14, 2027.

The 2026 season lasted 238 days, about 65% of the year, which matches the figure the National Institute of Standards and Technology gives for the current rule. The two transition days are unusual in length:

On March 8 the hour from 2:00 to 2:59 a.m. did not exist, and on November 1 every time between 1:00 and 1:59 a.m. happened twice. That second point matters for anything logged by local clock time: a timestamp of 1:30 a.m. on November 1 is ambiguous unless it carries a UTC offset (−4 before the change in Eastern Time, −5 after).

Phones, computers and most connected devices change automatically because they follow the time zone rules shipped with the operating system. Oven clocks, older car stereos and wall clocks still need a manual turn.

The dates below were computed from the rules rather than copied from a calendar: second Sunday in March and first Sunday in November for the United States, last Sunday in March and last Sunday in October for the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Because "second Sunday" can fall anywhere from March 8 to March 14, and "first Sunday" from November 1 to November 7, the US season always starts in the second week of March and ends in the first week of November. 2026 had the earliest possible dates on both ends.

These dates hold only as long as current law stands. If Congress changes the rule (see the Sunshine Protection Act section below), later years in this table would change too.

The schedule comes from the Uniform Time Act of 1966, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 260a. The current wording, set by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and in effect since 2007, says daylight saving time begins at 2 o'clock in the morning on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2 o'clock in the morning on the first Sunday of November. Before 2007 the US used the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October.

Three details of the rule explain most real-world confusion:

1. The change happens at 2:00 a.m. in each zone, not at one instant. New York switches first; Chicago follows an hour later, then Denver, Los Angeles, Anchorage and the Aleutians. For a few hours each transition night, the usual one-hour steps between US zones are briefly off.
2. States can opt out of daylight saving time but cannot opt in to it permanently. A state lying entirely in one zone may exempt itself by state law and stay on standard time all year. A state split between zones may exempt the whole state or only the part in one zone. Nothing in the statute lets a state stay on daylight time all year.
3. The rule is federal; the zone lines are separate. Which zone a county belongs to is set by the Department of Transportation in 49 CFR Part 71. Our guide to how time zone boundaries work covers that side.

Two states and all five populated territories stay on standard time year-round:

Arizona has a well-known exception inside the exception. The Navajo Nation, which covers much of northeastern Arizona and extends into Utah and New Mexico, observes daylight saving time. The Hopi Reservation, which lies entirely inside the Navajo Nation, does not. Driving across that corner of Arizona in summer can mean changing clocks several times in an hour.

The practical effect is that the gap between these places and the rest of the country changes twice a year. Phoenix is one hour behind Denver in summer and level with it in winter. Honolulu is three hours behind Los Angeles in summer and two hours behind in winter. Puerto Rico matches New York in summer and is an hour ahead of it in winter. To check a specific date, the time difference calculator compares two places with each one's own rules applied.

Not yet. As of November 6, 2026, the clock changes in 15 U.S.C. § 260a are still the law, and the March 14, 2027 date above still applies.

Here is what the official bill record shows for H.R. 139, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 (checked November 6, 2026 on govinfo.gov, the Government Publishing Office's record of bill versions):

• July 14, 2026: the House of Representatives passed the bill.
• July 15, 2026: the bill was received in the Senate, read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
• No Senate vote and no enactment appear in the record as of that date. The Senate's own version, S. 29, was introduced in January 2025 and referred to the same committee.

The House-passed text would repeal § 260a, ending the twice-yearly change, and amend 15 U.S.C. § 261 so that each zone's standard time moves one hour ahead. Eastern Standard Time, for example, would become UTC−4, today's summer offset. States that have exempted themselves from daylight saving time, such as Arizona and Hawaii, could keep their current standard time instead.

An earlier version, S. 623 (the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021), passed the Senate on March 15, 2022 and then died without a House vote, so passage in one chamber does not settle anything. If the Senate passes the bill and it is signed, the change would also need to reach every operating system's time zone rules before devices follow it. Until then, plan on clocks springing forward on March 14, 2027.

The United Kingdom and the European Union use a different rule. Under EU Directive 2000/84/EC, summer time starts at 01:00 GMT on the last Sunday in March and ends at 01:00 GMT on the last Sunday in October, in every member state at the same instant. The UK follows the same dates: in 2026, clocks went forward at 1:00 a.m. on March 29 and back at 2:00 a.m. on October 25 (British Summer Time in between, GMT otherwise).

Because Europe starts later in spring and ends earlier in autumn than the US, the usual gap across the Atlantic shrinks by one hour for a few weeks each year:

The spring window lasts three weeks in 2026 and 2030 and two weeks in 2027 to 2029; the autumn window is one week every year from 2026 to 2030. A recurring 10:00 a.m. New York call set to a London calendar lands at 3:00 p.m. most of the year and at 2:00 p.m. in those windows.

The southern hemisphere runs the other way. Places such as southeastern Australia, New Zealand and Chile move their clocks forward around September to October and back around April, so their gap with the US can change four times a year.

Most problems come from assumptions about other places, not from your own clock:

1. Schedule across borders by city, not by abbreviation. "EST" is wrong for half the year in New York. Use a place name or a UTC offset, and check the date with the time difference calculator, which applies each location's daylight saving rules to the day you pick.
2. Re-check recurring meetings in March and late October. Calendar apps keep a meeting at the organizer's local time. Attendees in a zone that has not switched yet see it move by an hour.
3. Avoid 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. for scheduled jobs on the March change day, and 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. on the November change day. A task set for 2:30 a.m. on March 8 has no matching clock time; one set for 1:30 a.m. on November 1 can run twice.
4. Know which zone you are actually in. Near a zone line, a phone can pick up a tower on the other side. What Time Zone Am I In checks your position against time zone polygons and shows the current offset and whether daylight time is in effect.
5. Remember the places that do not change. Arizona and Hawaii shift relative to everyone else even though their own clocks stay put. The US time zone map shows where each zone runs; for the count and the states split between zones, see how many time zones are in the US.