Daylight Saving Time 2026: When Clocks Change in Every Major Country

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In the United States, Daylight Saving Time in 2026 begins on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 2:00 AM local (spring forward) and ends on Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 2:00 AM local (fall back). In the European Union and the United Kingdom, DST begins on Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 1:00 UTC and ends on Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 1:00 UTC. In Australia, the southern hemisphere's reversed schedule means DST ends on April 5, 2026 and resumes on October 4, 2026, but only in ACT, NSW, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania.

Those are the headline dates. But the critical fact most people miss is that the US and Europe do not change their clocks on the same day. The US springs forward three weeks before Europe does, and Europe falls back one week before the US. During those two windows (March 8 to 29, 2026 and October 25 to November 1, 2026) the time difference between any US city and any European city is off by one hour from its normal value. This is when millions of transatlantic meetings get missed. We cover this in detail below.

For the underlying mechanics of how time zones work in the first place, see our guide on how time zones work.

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DST 2026 Dates: The Big Table

Here are the exact DST transition dates for 2026 across the major observing regions:

For more on the difference between standard time and DST, see our reference on standard time vs daylight saving time.

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The March 8 to 29, 2026 Danger Window

This is the single most important fact in this article for anyone who schedules transatlantic meetings.

On Sunday, March 8, 2026, the United States and most of Canada spring forward to Daylight Saving Time. Europe does not. Europe springs forward three weeks later, on Sunday, March 29, 2026. During those three weeks (March 8 through March 29) the time difference between any US city and any European city is one hour less than usual.

Concretely:

• New York (EST, UTC−5) is normally 5 hours behind London (GMT, UTC+0). During March 8 to 29, 2026, New York is on EDT (UTC−4) while London is still on GMT, so New York is only 4 hours behind London.
• Los Angeles (PST, UTC−8) is normally 8 hours behind London. During March 8 to 29, 2026, Los Angeles is on PDT (UTC−7) while London is still on GMT, so Los Angeles is only 7 hours behind London.
• New York is normally 6 hours behind Berlin (CET, UTC+1). During March 8 to 29, 2026, New York is on EDT (UTC−4) while Berlin is still on CET, so New York is only 5 hours behind Berlin.

The reverse problem occurs in autumn. On Sunday, October 25, 2026, Europe falls back to standard time. The US does not fall back until Sunday, November 1, 2026, one week later. During that single week, the time difference between any US city and any European city is one hour less than usual again, because the US is "ahead" of Europe in its DST cycle. The pattern of confusion is reversed in each window: in March, people who hardcoded a US-Europe meeting at "5 hours apart" show up an hour early on the US side. In October, people who hardcoded a meeting at "5 hours apart" show up an hour late on the US side. The underlying offset shift direction is the same.

If you schedule recurring international meetings, bookmark our guide on how to avoid DST mistakes in global meetings. For the underlying reason that time differences change during the year at all, see why time differences change during the year.

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The United States: State-by-State Exceptions

The United States is not uniform. Most of the country observes DST under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, but several states and territories do not, and the situation is more complicated than most people realize.

States and territories that do NOT observe DST:

• Arizona: except the Navajo Nation, which does observe DST. The Hopi Reservation, which is entirely surrounded by the Navajo Nation, does not observe DST. This creates a nested-doll situation where you can drive through three timekeeping regimes in a single afternoon.
• Hawaii: standard time year-round. Hawaii's proximity to the equator means day length varies little throughout the year, so DST provides little benefit.
• Puerto Rico: Atlantic Standard Time year-round.
• Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands: do not observe DST.

States that have attempted to make DST permanent: As of 2026, the "Sunshine Protection Act," which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent nationwide, has been introduced in Congress multiple times but has not become federal law. Without federal action, states cannot unilaterally switch to permanent DST (they can only opt out of DST entirely, as Arizona and Hawaii have done). Florida, California, Oregon, Washington, and several other states have passed state-level laws or resolutions expressing intent to adopt permanent DST if federal law permits. As of July 2026, no such federal permission has been granted.

The practical consequence: through the rest of 2026 and into 2027, the US will continue to observe the March-November DST cycle. Plan accordingly.

For US-specific calling coordination with major international partners, see our guides on the best time to call India from the USA and the best time to call the UK from the USA.

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Canada: Mostly Follows the US, With Exceptions

Canada's DST schedule is harmonized with the United States: second Sunday in March to first Sunday in November. This was not always the case. Canada extended its DST period in 2007 to match a US extension made the same year, in large part to avoid exactly the kind of cross-border scheduling chaos that broken timekeeping causes.

Canadian provinces and territories that do NOT observe DST:

• Saskatchewan: observes Central Standard Time year-round. The province is geographically split between Mountain and Central time, but in 1966 Saskatchewan chose to observe CST year-round across the entire province.
• Yukon: switched to permanent Mountain Standard Time in 2020. Yukon does not change its clocks at all anymore.
• Parts of British Columbia: most notably the Peace River region (including Fort St. John and Dawson Creek) and the East Kootenay region observe Mountain Time year-round, while the rest of BC observes Pacific Time with DST.
• Parts of Quebec: the easternmost parts of Quebec (the Lower North Shore, including Blanc-Sablon) observe Atlantic Standard Time year-round and do not observe DST.
• Parts of Nunavut: Southampton Island (Coral Harbour) does not observe DST.

If you are calling between the US and Canada during the March or October danger windows, the harmonized schedule means no DST-induced offset shifts between observing regions, but watch out for the Saskatchewan, Yukon, and BC exceptions above, which can produce a one-hour offset from what you would expect based on a neighbor's clock.

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The European Union and the UK: One Schedule, Two Timezones

The EU and the UK both observe DST on the same dates: last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October. The transition happens at 1:00 UTC across all EU timezones simultaneously, which means the local clock time of the transition varies by timezone.

In the UK (GMT/BST), clocks spring forward from 1:00 AM to 2:00 AM on the last Sunday in March. In Western Europe (CET/CEST, UTC+1/UTC+2), clocks spring forward from 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM. In Eastern Europe (EET/EEST, UTC+2/UTC+3), clocks spring forward from 3:00 AM to 4:00 AM. All of these are the same instant (1:00 UTC) just expressed in local time.

The EU DST abolition saga: In 2018, the European Commission proposed ending the biannual clock change in the EU. In 2019, the European Parliament voted to abolish DST starting in 2021. The plan stalled because member states could not agree on whether to stay on permanent summer time or permanent winter time, and because the change required coordination to avoid a patchwork of timekeeping regimes across the continent. As of 2026, no implementation has occurred, and the EU continues to observe DST on the traditional schedule. The proposal is effectively dormant.

The UK, post-Brexit, would in principle be free to set its own DST policy independently of the EU, but as of 2026, the UK continues to match the EU's DST schedule, and there are no active proposals to change this.

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Australia: A Southern Hemisphere Schedule

Australia's DST runs in the opposite direction from the Northern Hemisphere because Australian summer falls during Northern Hemisphere winter. DST begins in October and ends in April.

Australian states and territories that observe DST (start October 4, 2026, end April 5, 2026):

• Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
• New South Wales (NSW)
• Victoria (VIC)
• South Australia (SA)
• Tasmania (TAS)

Australian states and territories that do NOT observe DST:

• Queensland (no DST since 1992, a recurring political debate)
• Western Australia (no DST since 2009; a 2006 to 2009 trial was rejected by referendum)
• Northern Territory (no DST since World War II)

This produces a peculiar situation every summer: from October to April, Sydney (AEDT, UTC+11) is three hours ahead of Perth (AWST, UTC+8), and during the danger windows when only one side has changed clocks, the gap is briefly different. From April to October, Sydney (AEST, UTC+10) is two hours ahead of Perth. The Sydney-Perth time difference changes during the year, and this catches people off guard.

A lesser-known quirk: Lord Howe Island (part of NSW) observes DST, but shifts by only 30 minutes instead of the usual 60 minutes. Lord Howe Island is the only place in the world with a 30-minute DST offset.

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New Zealand: An Earlier Start

New Zealand's DST begins on the last Sunday in September, earlier than Australia, and ends on the first Sunday in April. For 2026/2027, that means:

• DST begins: Sunday, September 27, 2026 at 2:00 AM NZST (clocks spring forward to 3:00 AM NZDT)
• DST ends: Sunday, April 5, 2026 at 3:00 AM NZDT (clocks fall back to 2:00 AM NZST)

Note that the April 5, 2026 end date is before the September 27, 2026 start date. This is because we are writing in July 2026, looking forward. The current DST season in New Zealand began on September 28, 2025 and ends April 5, 2026. The next DST season begins September 27, 2026.

New Zealand's Chatham Islands observe DST on the same schedule but are 45 minutes ahead of the mainland, one of only two places in the world (along with Lord Howe Island) with a 45-minute or 30-minute offset from a neighbor.

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Major Countries That Never Observe DST

A surprising number of major countries do not observe DST at all, and have not for many years, or ever. If you do business with or call family in these countries, their clocks never change.

China: a single timezone (UTC+8) for the entire country, year-round. China spans about 5 hours of solar time geographically (from Xinjiang in the west to Heilongjiang in the east), but the entire country uses Beijing Time. This means sunrise in western China in winter can be as late as 10:00 AM local time. China abandoned DST in 1991 after a decade of experimentation.

India: India Standard Time (UTC+5:30) year-round. India does not observe DST and never has. The country spans about 2 hours of solar time geographically but uses a single timezone. The half-hour offset is itself unusual; only a handful of countries use a non-integer UTC offset.

Japan: Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) year-round. Japan observed DST briefly under US occupation from 1948 to 1951 but abandoned it and has not used it since. There have been periodic proposals to reintroduce DST (especially around the 2020 Olympics), but none have advanced.

Russia: Russia abolished DST in 2011, switching to permanent summer time. This proved unpopular (especially in western Russia, where winter mornings were dark), and in 2014 Russia switched to permanent standard time, where it has remained since. Russia does not observe DST.

Brazil: Brazil abolished DST in 2019 after observing it for many years. The decision was made because the energy savings were minimal and the disruption was significant.

Other major non-observers: Saudi Arabia, UAE, all of the Gulf states (except Iran, which observes DST), most of Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines), most of Africa (except some southern African countries like Namibia which recently abolished DST), and most of South America (except Chile and Paraguay, which do observe DST).

Mexico: Mexico abolished DST in October 2022 for most of the country, after decades of observing it. The exception is a strip of border municipalities that continue to follow the US DST schedule to stay synchronized with their US neighbors. This makes Mexico one of the most recent countries to drop DST.

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Practical Advice for the October 2026 Transition

The October 25, 2026 EU/UK transition and the November 1, 2026 US/Canada transition create a one-week window when transatlantic time differences are off by one hour. If you have a recurring meeting set up during this week, here is what to do:

1. Use calendar software that handles timezones properly. Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar all store events in UTC and display them in your local timezone, so a recurring meeting set up at "9 AM New York / 2 PM London" will auto-adjust through both danger windows. The risk is only if you hardcoded a meeting time by emailing someone "let's meet at 2 PM London time" and they put it in their calendar as a fixed local time without timezone awareness.
2. Confirm meeting times verbally the day before. During the danger windows, send a quick "this is 9 AM your time, correct?" email. This takes 30 seconds and prevents the most common mistake: showing up an hour early or late.
3. For international calls, double-check the offset on the day of. Timeanddate.com's meeting planner is good for this, but the simplest check is to ask "what UTC time are we meeting at?" UTC never changes for DST, so a meeting anchored to UTC is unambiguous.
4. For travel during transitions, set a clock reminder. If you are flying from New York to London on October 25, 2026 (the day the UK falls back) your phone will auto-update, but you may feel jet-lagged differently than expected because of the combined timezone shift and DST shift. Plan an extra hour of sleep.

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What to Do Next

If you schedule international meetings, the most useful single page on this site is our guide to how to avoid DST mistakes in global meetings. It walks through the specific failure modes and how to prevent each one. If you specifically call between the US and the UK, see best time to call the UK from the USA. If you call India, see best time to call India from the USA. Note that India does not observe DST, so the best call time changes by an hour when the US springs forward or falls back.

For the underlying mechanics, our what is daylight saving time primer covers the history and rationale, and how time zones work covers the broader system of UTC offsets that DST operates within.

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Explore More

• 🕒 What Is Daylight Saving Time?: The history, original rationale, and ongoing debate over whether DST still makes sense.
• 🕒 Standard Time vs Daylight Saving Time: The technical difference, and why some people want to make DST permanent.
• 🕒 Why Time Differences Change During the Year: The full explanation of the danger windows, with a worked example.
• 🕒 How to Avoid DST Mistakes in Global Meetings: Practical playbook for anyone who schedules cross-timezone calls.
• 🕒 How Time Zones Work: UTC, offsets, the International Date Line, and the irregular shape of timezone boundaries.