Daylight saving time in the United States

Most of the United States observes daylight saving time (DST), the practice of setting the clock forward by one hour when there is longer daylight during the day, so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Exceptions include Arizona (except for the Navajo, who do observe daylight saving time in the Navajo Nation),^[1] Hawaii,^[2] and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a uniform set of rules for states opting to observe daylight saving time.^[1]

In the U.S., daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, with the time changes taking place at 2:00 a.m. local time. With a mnemonic word play referring to seasons, clocks "spring forward, fall back"—that is, in springtime the clocks are moved forward from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. and in fall they are moved back from 2:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Daylight saving time lasts for a total of 34 weeks (238 days) every year, about 65% of the entire year.

As of 2024^[update], federal law supports states that opt to switch between standard time and daylight saving time (from standard time to daylight saving time in the spring, then back to standard time in the fall), despite some unsuccessful efforts to do away with this practice. In 2022, the United States Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act which would have permanently activated daylight saving time, but it did not become law, because it was not approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.^[3]

The following table lists recent-past and near-future starting and ending dates of daylight saving time in the United States (in states that observe daylight saving time):