What time zone is California in?
Pacific Time — the whole state, one zone, and it does change its clocks despite a 2018 ballot measure that suggested otherwise.
The short answer
California is entirely in the Pacific Time Zone. PST (UTC−8) in winter, PDT (UTC−7) in summer.
The whole state — San Diego to the Oregon border — is one zone, and it does observe daylight saving.
Conversions from California
| To | Difference |
|---|---|
| Denver | 1 hour ahead |
| Chicago | 2 hours ahead |
| New York | 3 hours ahead |
| London | 8 hours ahead |
| Tokyo | 16 hours ahead summer · 17 hours ahead winter |
The three-hour gap to New York is constant all year, because both coasts change their clocks on the same dates. See PST to EST.
The Tokyo gap is not constant — Japan never changes its clocks, so the difference moves by an hour twice a year from the California side.
Does California observe daylight saving?
Yes. Clocks go forward on the second Sunday in March (2026-03-08 this year) and back on the first Sunday in November (2026-11-01).
This surprises people because of Proposition 7, which Californians passed in 2018 with about 60% support. It is widely remembered as "California voted to stop changing the clocks."
What it actually did was narrower: it repealed a 1949 ballot measure and gave the legislature the authority to change the state's daylight saving practice by a two-thirds vote. Permanent daylight saving would additionally require an act of Congress, because federal law permits states to opt out of DST entirely but not to adopt it year-round.
Neither the legislative vote nor the federal change has happened. California still changes its clocks.
Neighbours worth knowing about
Arizona, immediately east, does not observe daylight saving. So Arizona matches Denver in winter and matches California in summer — a colleague in Phoenix is the same time as you for half the year and an hour ahead for the other half.
Nevada, Oregon and Washington are all Pacific time, with a small caveat: a sliver of eastern Oregon near the Idaho border is on Mountain time.
Writing it down
Use PT, or the city. "PST" is correct only from November to March, and for the eight months of PDT it names a time that is not in effect.
For anything more than a couple of weeks out, write "Los Angeles" — it resolves correctly on any date, including across the transitions.
Related: PST to EST · Does Arizona observe daylight saving time?
Timezone: World Clock Widget
A world clock, converter and live day/night map for iPhone — 325 cities, offline, no account.
Figures on this page are computed from the IANA time zone database. Last generated 2026-08-18.