When does daylight saving time start?
Different dates in different places — and the three weeks between the American and European switches are the ones that quietly break transatlantic calendars.
The short answer
In 2026: the United States on 2026-03-08, the UK and EU on 2026-03-29.
Clocks go forward one hour, locally at 2am in the US and at 01:00 UTC across the EU. Next year it is 2027-03-14 and 2027-03-28.
The rules, not just the dates
Dates move each year; the rules do not, which makes them worth knowing.
| Region | Rule | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States & Canada | Second Sunday in March, 02:00 local | 2026-03-08 | 2027-03-14 |
| UK & European Union | Last Sunday in March, 01:00 UTC | 2026-03-29 | 2027-03-28 |
A difference worth noticing: the US switches at 2am local time, so it happens in a rolling wave across the country — the east coast changes three hours before the west. The EU switches at a single UTC instant, so every member state changes simultaneously, at 1am in London, 2am in Paris, 3am in Helsinki.
The gap weeks
Between 2026-03-08 and 2026-03-29 — about three weeks — the US has sprung forward and Europe has not.
During that period the transatlantic gap is an hour smaller than usual. New York to London is four hours rather than five. Every recurring meeting written as a fixed local time on both sides is an hour out, and then it fixes itself, which is why the cause so rarely gets diagnosed.
If you run anything recurring across the Atlantic, these are the three weeks to check. See Eastern Time to GMT.
The southern hemisphere runs the other way
Australia and New Zealand start daylight saving in October and end it in April, because their summer is the northern winter. In 2026, the Australian states that observe it began on 2026-10-03.
That means for part of the year the gap between Europe and Sydney is moving in both directions at once — one hemisphere springing forward while the other falls back. The London↔Sydney gap swings between 11 hours ahead and 9 hours ahead across the year, which is a two-hour swing on the same pair of cities.
Places that do not start it at all
Most of Asia, most of Africa, most of South America, and within the US, Arizona and Hawaii. Within Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
If your counterpart is in one of these, the whole change happens on your side and the adjustment is entirely yours to make.
Related: When does daylight saving time end? · Daylight saving time explained
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.