When do the clocks change? Dates for the US, UK and Europe through 2030

In 2026 the UK and the EU put the clocks back on Sunday 25 October, and the United States follows a week later, on Sunday 1 November. They never change on the same day, which is why calls between the two sides drift by an hour twice a year. Here are the dates for the next few years and the details that trip people up.

Reviewed on 3 October 2026 · 4 min read

The dates, side by side

The UK and the EU follow the same rule: clocks go forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October. The United States uses a different one: forward on the second Sunday of March, back on the first Sunday of November. Applied to the next few years:

YearUK and EU: forwardUK and EU: backUS: forwardUS: back
202629 March25 October8 March1 November
202728 March31 October14 March7 November
202826 March29 October12 March5 November
202925 March28 October11 March4 November
203031 March27 October10 March3 November

The UK government publishes its own table (2026: 29 March and 25 October), and the US dates follow from the rule NIST describes: DST begins at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November. For 2026, NIST gives the span as 8 March to 1 November.

What time the change happens

In the US, local time skips from 2:00 to 3:00 in spring (a 23-hour day) and falls back from 2:00 to 1:00 in autumn, repeating that hour (a 25-hour day). In the UK, clocks go forward at 1:00 a.m. and back at 2:00 a.m. Across the EU the switch happens at the same instant everywhere, 01:00 UTC, which shows up on local clocks as different times: 2:00 to 3:00 in Spain or Germany in March, 3:00 back to 2:00 in October, and one hour earlier on the clock in Portugal or Ireland.

The US does not apply it everywhere. According to NIST, DST is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and most of Arizona (the Navajo Nation, within Arizona, does observe it).

Why a call between London and New York shifts by an hour

Because the two sides change on different days, there are a few weeks a year when the gap is not the usual one. Normally New York is five hours behind London. For a short stretch in spring and another in autumn the gap is four:

  • In 2026: from 8 to 28 March (the US has moved its clocks, Europe has not yet) and from 25 to 31 October (Europe has gone back, the US has not yet).
  • In 2027: from 14 to 27 March and from 31 October to 6 November.

The same happens with any two places that follow different rules. The practical consequence: if you set up a recurring meeting for "9 a.m. New York, 2 p.m. London" in February, it will land at 1 p.m. London time for part of March. Do not trust the arithmetic from memory in those weeks. Put the exact date of the meeting into the time zone converter, which applies each zone's rules for that date, or use the meeting time finder when three or more cities are involved.

The extra and missing hour in practice

The night of the change lasts 23 or 25 hours, and that matters in a few places:

  • Night shifts and timesheets. A 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift is eight hours of clock time most of the year, but seven real hours in spring and nine in autumn. Use the time duration calculator when a period crosses the change, and check how your contract treats that night.
  • Scheduled jobs. A task set for 2:30 local time can run twice in autumn and be skipped or delayed in spring, depending on the scheduler. Scheduling in UTC avoids the problem.
  • Recorded timestamps. Times stored without an offset are ambiguous for the repeated hour. Store UTC and convert for display.

Will the changes be abolished?

There have been proposals on both sides. In the EU, the European Commission put forward a plan in September 2018 to end seasonal clock changes, leaving each country to choose its permanent time, and the European Parliament adopted its position in March 2019; according to the Commission, the final decision rests with the Council and the Parliament, so until that happens the current rule stands. In the US, NIST notes that Congress set the current rule in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. As of this page's review date, none of these has changed the dates above, and we will update it if they do.

To schedule tasks without surprises on the day of the change, the guide to cron expressions explains what happens to hours that are skipped or repeated, and the Unix timestamp guide why it pays to store dates in UTC.

Sources and further reading

Figures checked on 3 October 2026.

Do it now, free, in your browser. Your files are not uploaded.

Convert a time between time zones and see it in up to four cities at once.

Time zone converterMeeting time finder

Frequently asked questions

When do the clocks go back in 2026?
In the UK and the EU, on Sunday 25 October 2026. In the United States, on Sunday 1 November 2026.
When do the clocks go forward in 2027?
On Sunday 28 March 2027 in the UK and the EU, and on Sunday 14 March 2027 in the United States.
Why do the US and Europe change on different dates?
They follow different rules. The US starts DST on the second Sunday of March and ends it on the first Sunday of November; the UK and EU start on the last Sunday of March and end on the last Sunday of October.
What is the time difference between London and New York in the weeks between changes?
It is four hours instead of the usual five, for a few weeks in spring and autumn (in 2026, 8–28 March and 25–31 October).
Do all US states change the clocks?
No. According to NIST, DST is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and most of Arizona.
Is daylight saving time being abolished?
Not yet. The EU has a Commission proposal from 2018 that has not completed the legislative process, and the US rule dates from the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The dates in this guide are current as of its review date.

Related guides

Data and developersCron expressions explained, with examples and gotchasHow the five cron fields work, ready-to-use examples (every 15 minutes, weekdays at 9), and the traps: day-of-month vs weekday, step values, time zones.5 min read Data and developersUnix timestamps explained: seconds, milliseconds and the year 2038What a Unix timestamp is, how to tell seconds from milliseconds, why a 10-digit number gives a date in 1970, and what the 2038 problem really is.4 min read Dates and timeWhat week of the year is it? How ISO week numbers workHow weeks are numbered under ISO 8601, why 2026 has 53 weeks, why 1 January can be week 52 or 53 and why Excel gives a different number. With worked examples.5 min read

Tools used in this guide

They run in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.

Time zone converterConvert a time between time zones and see it in up to four cities at once. Meeting time finderFind hours when people in different time zones are all within their working day. Time duration calculatorHours and minutes between two times, or the total of a list of durations. Business days calculatorCount working days between two dates, or add business days to a date. Days between two datesHow many days, weeks, months and years are there between two dates? Add or subtract days from a dateWhat date is it after adding or subtracting days, weeks, months or years?