Daylight Savings Time Ends Sunday, November 3, 2024, 2:00 am; East and West Coast, Central, Mountain. More info.

Latest update: September 24, 2024. Page URL indicates original publication date; meanwhile, times change, and the updates continue.

USA Daylight Saving Time: its meaning; about it in general; when is it; where is it; more.

All about and dealing with the Daylight Savings Time (DST) changes in the US and around the world, plus some resource links. Technically, it's actually called "Daylight Saving Time", without the "s". But we all seem determined to add that extra letter and we all seem fine with it. This page briefly covers:

• The what and why of daylight savings time and some time zone notes.
• The current US schedule for when daylight savings time begins and ends.
• Where is daylight savings time in the US and some time zone notes.
• Dealing with changing all the clocks.
• Daylight savings time around the world.

Daylight Saving Time Around the World

Why Have and What Is Daylight Savings Time?

This page is US-centric; but except for the start and end dates, it's pretty much all the same.

The purpose of Daylight Savings Time is to conserve energy. There is some dispute as to whether this objective is accomplished or not. The methodology used is to move one hour of sunlight from the morning to the evening by resetting the clocks.

The official abbreviation for Daylight Savings Time is DST (Standard Time being ST). So, for the east and west coast time zones for example, the designations alter from EST and PST to EDT and PDT and vice-versa.

When Does Daylight Savings Time Start and End in 2024?

Daylight Saving Time Begins: Sunday, March 10, 2024, 2:00 am (dates updated yearly)

To move one hour of sunlight from the morning to the evening, clocks are reset ahead one hour every spring. Currently this is done on the second Sunday of every March at 2:00 a.m. At the appointed time, the clocks are reset forward to 3:00 a.m. ("spring forward").

Daylight Saving Time Ends: Sunday, November 3, 2024, 2:00 am (dates updated yearly)

To make things as they were and move that extra sunlight hour back to the morning, clocks are reset back one hour every fall. Currently this is done the first Sunday of every November at 2:00 a.m. At the appointed time, the clocks are reset from 2:00 a.m. back to 1:00 a.m. ("fall back"). Generally, folks aren't amused when this happens; they have become used to not having to commute home in the dark every evening.

Where Is Daylight Savings Time? East and West Coast. More.

Not all of the US engages in this adventure. Both Hawaii and most of Arizona decided they wanted nothing to do with it. Most US territories also do not observe Daylight Savings Time. These entities remain on Standard Time year-round.

The Clock-Changing Reality...

 Be glad you don't have to mess with this one...

Yb (Ytterbium) Lattice Atomic Clock (NIST)

What one is "supposed" to do is reset all the clocks and watches before going to bed. However, more often than not, this usually does not happen. The clocks, watches, etc. generally get reset Sunday throughout the day, usually because there are so many of them. Personally, I start doing the resetting beginning mid Saturday morning. By the time I go to bed, I've pretty much already adjusted to the time change.

The various computer and computer-related clocks are invariably checked to see if they were indeed coordinated enough to do what they were supposed to do.

If you are looking to reset everything accurately right down to the precise second, you can do so at www.time.gov. Daylight Savings Time changes are also supposed to be the bi-annual reminder to check and/or change your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and batteries.

Daylight Saving Time Around the World

DST World Overview List

• Canada is as the US; most provinces and territories take it, some leave it. Mexico is the same.
• Central and South America mostly want nothing to do with Daylight Savings Time; however, Chile and parts of Brazil do indeed do DST.
• Europe mostly does do Daylight Savings Time. Russia, China, and all of Asia want absolutely nothing to do with it.
• Australia is as the US, Canada and Mexico; majority do, but some don't.
• Africa is 90% don't do DST and 10% do DST.

Looks like our species can't even agree on what time it is. But that's OK, we somehow still manage to keep muddling along. In all seriousness, geography and cultural differences do sometimes necessitate adjustments.

Non-US daylight savings time start and end dates can usually be found at www.timeanddate.com.

World Time Zone Non Standard Abbreviations

There sure are a lot of them... Not only that, but many of the abbreviations are also not unique. The whole thing is a complete, non-standardized mess. The reason is each country makes up their own locally relevant designations. The timeanddate website appears to have the best compilation of the non-standardized world time zone abbreviations currently being used.

There is also a World Standardized Time Zone and a World Standardized Time Code

• GMT (0/-/+) is the time zone abbreviation for Greenwich Mean Time. Many other time zones will refer to themselves as GMT, plus or minus the number of hours difference between their time zone and the GMT time zone.
• UTC (0/-/+) is the time code abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time or Universal Coordinated Time. This is the military and civilian standard mostly used these days.

Neither GMT nor UTC observes DST; instead, the -/+ offsets are adjusted at the local level. In other words, as Daylight Saving Time comes and goes, the GMT/UTC offsets change. As an example, for the US East Coast, the GMT/UTC offset changes from -5 to -4 during DST. For the US West Coast, the GMT/UTC offset changes from -8 to -7 during DST.

UTC / GMT Map

"-" means it's an hour earlier.  "+" means it's an hour later.
Note that each time zone also has its own letter designation.

Random List of UTC/GMT Offset Examples (during non-daylight-saving times):

• 0 London; Paris
• -5 New York; Quebec; US East Coast. (-4 during DST)
• -6 Winnipeg; Dallas
• -7 Denver; Edmonton
• -8 Los Angeles; San Francisco; US West Coast (-7 during DST)
• -10 Honolulu
• +1 Berlin
• +3 Moscow
• +8 Shanghai; Perth
• +9 Tokyo
• +10 Sydney

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