Daylight saving time: When to set clocks back in 2026
Daylight saving time will end in most of the country in the early morning hours of the first Sunday in November. Hawaii, most of Arizona and several U.S. territories do not observe the change.
Daylight saving time: Is standard time coming soon? (Image)
The country will return to standard time on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, when millions of Americans will need to set their clocks back one hour.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), daylight saving time in 2026 will remain in effect until 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, local time. At that time, clocks must be set back to 1 a.m., so that early morning will have an extra hour.
The official source can be found here: NIST Daylight Saving Time Rules.
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Why does the time change?
Federal regulations stipulate that daylight saving time (DST) begins at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and ends at the same time on the first Sunday in November.
The current system has been in effect since 2007, following changes introduced by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In March, clocks are set forward one hour, and in November, they are set back to return to standard time.
In 2026, the first time change occurred on March 8, when at 2 a.m. the clocks jumped directly to 3 a.m. The process will be reversed on Nov. 1.
Not all of the U.S. changes the time
According to NIST, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time. The main exception within Arizona is the Navajo Nation, which does observe the seasonal changes.
The Department of Transportation is responsible for regulating time zones and daylight saving time, while NIST serves as one of the official references for the country's time.
Following the change on Nov. 1, the United States will remain on standard time until March 2027.
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