When Do the Clocks Change? DST Dates Around the World

Daylight Saving Time (DST)

There is no single worldwide date for changing the clocks. The United States switches in early March and early November, Europe and the UK switch on the last Sundays of March and October, and the southern hemisphere does the opposite — Australia and New Zealand put their clocks forward in the last months of the year. This guide lists the exact dates for 2026 and 2027 and explains why they never quite line up.

Clock Change Dates for 2026

The dates below are the ones that matter for most international scheduling. Northern-hemisphere regions move the clock forward in spring; southern-hemisphere regions move it forward in their own spring, which falls in September and October.

Clock Change Dates for 2027

Why the Dates Never Line Up

Every country sets its own rule, and the rules were written at different times for different reasons. The practical consequence is two annual windows in which North America and Europe are temporarily out of step:

• Spring: the US springs forward on the second Sunday of March, Europe on the last Sunday. Depending on how the calendar falls, that leaves a gap of two or three weeks — three in 2026, two in 2027.
• Autumn: Europe falls back on the last Sunday of October, the US a week later. That gap is always exactly one week.

During those windows the difference between London and New York is 4 hours instead of the usual 5, and the difference between central Europe and the US East Coast is 5 instead of 6. This is the single most common cause of missed transatlantic calls — see How to Avoid Time Zone Scheduling Mistakes for how to defend against it.

North America

The US rule — second Sunday of March to first Sunday of November, switching at 2:00 AM local time — has been in force since 2007. Canada follows the same calendar, which keeps cross-border offsets stable all year. Exceptions worth knowing:

• Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time year round, as do Puerto Rico, Guam and the other US territories.
• Saskatchewan does not change its clocks, and Yukon stopped in 2020, settling permanently on the offset it used to keep only in summer. Parts of British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Nunavut also sit it out — see Time Zones in Canada Explained.
• Mexico abolished nationwide DST at the end of October 2022. Only a strip of northern border municipalities still switches, and it does so on the US dates so that cross-border commerce stays aligned.

Because the switch is defined in local time, the change rolls westward across the continent over about five hours rather than happening everywhere at once. Full detail is in Daylight Saving Time in the United States Explained.

Europe and the United Kingdom

Europe does something North America does not: it switches simultaneously. The EU directive sets the change at 01:00 UTC, so the clock jumps at the same physical moment from Lisbon to Helsinki — 01:00 becomes 02:00 in the UK and Ireland, 02:00 becomes 03:00 in central Europe, and 03:00 becomes 04:00 in eastern Europe. Internal European offsets therefore never wobble, not even for an hour.

The dates are the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October. The UK calls its summer offset British Summer Time (BST, UTC+1) and its winter offset GMT (UTC+0); most of the continent moves between CET (UTC+1) and CEST (UTC+2). See Time Zones in the United Kingdom Explained and Time Zones in Europe Explained for the zone-by-zone picture.

The European Parliament voted in 2019 to abolish seasonal clock changes, with member states choosing whether to settle on permanent summer or permanent winter time. Agreement on which was never reached, the proposal stalled, and the twice-yearly change remains in force. The Commission launched a fresh impact study in February 2026, due to report at the end of that year, so the dates above stand for now — the detail is in Will Daylight Saving Time Be Abolished?

The Southern Hemisphere Runs on Opposite Seasons

South of the equator, summer falls at the turn of the year, so the clocks go forward as the northern hemisphere is putting its own back:

• Australia: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT run DST from the first Sunday of October to the first Sunday of April. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not observe it at all — which is why Sydney and Brisbane share a clock for half the year and sit an hour apart for the other half.
• New Zealand: last Sunday of September to the first Sunday of April, moving between UTC+12 and UTC+13.
• Chile: first Saturday of September to the first Saturday of April, except the Magallanes region in the far south, which stays on its summer offset year round.

The reversal creates a curious effect between the hemispheres: for a few months a year the gap between London and Sydney is 9 hours, and for a few months it is 11, with 10-hour transition periods in between — worked through date by date in London vs Sydney Time Difference, and applied to scheduling in Best Time for Meetings Between Europe and Australia. Australia also has the world’s only half-hour DST shift — Lord Howe Island moves just 30 minutes, from UTC+10:30 to UTC+11. More on that in Time Zones in Australia Explained.

Countries That Recently Stopped Changing the Clocks

The global trend over the last decade has been away from seasonal clock changes, which is worth knowing if you are working from an old reference:

Most of Asia and Africa never adopted the practice in the first place. Japan, India, China and almost the whole of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa keep one offset all year — see Countries That Do Not Use Daylight Saving Time.

Two Unusual Cases

Morocco runs the world’s most irregular schedule. It is on UTC+1 permanently, but reverts to UTC+0 for the month of Ramadan and then moves back afterwards — two clock changes a year on dates that shift by roughly eleven days annually, because they follow the lunar calendar.

Egypt abandoned DST in 2014 and reintroduced it in 2023, running from late April to late October. It is a useful reminder that these rules are political decisions and can change with a few months’ notice; the underlying time zone database is updated several times a year to keep up.

How to Be Sure Before an Important Date

A few habits remove almost all of the risk around transition weekends:

1. Check the live offset rather than assuming last month’s gap still applies — every city page on this site shows the current UTC offset alongside the clock.
2. Put the transition dates for the regions you work with into your own calendar as all-day markers.
3. Anchor recurring meetings to one city’s local time, not to a fixed UTC time, so the calendar handles the shift for everyone else.
4. Treat the three weeks after the US spring change and the week after the European autumn change as periods for double-checking anything important.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do the clocks change in 2026?

In the United States and Canada, forward on Sunday 8 March 2026 and back on Sunday 1 November 2026. In the European Union, the UK and Ireland, forward on Sunday 29 March 2026 and back on Sunday 25 October 2026. In Australia and New Zealand the clocks go back on Sunday 5 April 2026 and forward again in late September or early October.

Do the clocks go forward or back in March?

Forward, in the northern hemisphere — you lose an hour of sleep and gain an hour of evening daylight. South of the equator March and April are autumn, so clocks there go back instead.

Why do America and Europe change on different dates?

Because each sets its own rule. The current US dates come from the Energy Policy Act of 2005, while the EU fixed the last Sundays of March and October by directive. Nothing coordinates the two, so there is a two-to-three week gap in spring and a one-week gap in autumn when the usual offsets are an hour out.

Does the whole of Europe change its clocks at the same moment?

Yes. The EU rule specifies 01:00 UTC, so every European country switches at the same instant even though the local clock reads a different hour in each zone. Offsets within Europe therefore never change, not even briefly.

Is Daylight Saving Time being abolished?

In some places it already has been — Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran and Paraguay have all stopped in the last decade. The EU voted to abolish the change in 2019 but never agreed on what to replace it with. In the United States the Sunshine Protection Act passed the Senate in 2022 without becoming law, and passed the House on 14 July 2026; it still needs the Senate. For now, both blocs still switch — see Will Daylight Saving Time Be Abolished?

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Related guides

• What Is Daylight Saving Time?
• Will Daylight Saving Time Be Abolished?
• Daylight Saving Time in the United States Explained
• Countries That Do Not Use Daylight Saving Time
• Time Zones in Canada Explained
• Time Zones in the United Kingdom Explained
• Time Zones in Europe Explained
• London vs Sydney Time Difference
• Best Time for Meetings Between Europe and Australia
• How to Avoid Time Zone Scheduling Mistakes