The next U.S. time change is March 14, 2027

In most of the United States, the next clock change is Sunday, March 14, 2027: at 2 a.m. local time, clocks move forward to 3 a.m.. This guide was checked on November 5, 2026, after the autumn 2026 change had already occurred. Under current rules, the following change is Sunday, November 7, 2027, when clocks move back. The National Institute of Standards and Technology explains the recurring U.S. rule: the second Sunday in March and first Sunday in November. The dates below also match the 2027 U.S. clock-change calendar. “Local time” matters: the change follows each observing location’s clock, rather than one simultaneous nationwide instant. If you are planning travel, an overnight shift or an early appointment, write down the destination city alongside the date. A reminder saying only “change the clock Sunday” leaves out both direction and location. Use the full date in a shared calendar so that an old message cannot be mistaken for instructions for a different year.

2027 date	Local clock change	Direction
March 14	2 a.m. → 3 a.m.	Forward 1 hour
November 7	2 a.m. → 1 a.m.	Back 1 hour

What “spring forward” and “fall back” actually do

The March adjustment skips a local-clock hour; the November adjustment repeats one. For a concrete spring example, a clock displaying 1:59 a.m. moves into the 3 a.m. hour at the transition, so a local appointment labeled 2:30 a.m. needs clarification. In autumn, a label such as 1:30 a.m. can refer to two different moments during the repeated hour. If the appointment falls within that interval, ask the organizer which occurrence is intended and confirm the time zone. These examples describe clock labels, not the disappearance or creation of elapsed time. A stopwatch still measures a continuous duration. This distinction is useful for overnight work logs, travel connections and any schedule spanning the transition. Rather than doing mental arithmetic from an ambiguous timestamp, keep the calendar event’s time-zone information and, when precision matters, its UTC offset. For ordinary daytime plans, checking the date and city is usually enough. The point of the mnemonic is direction: spring moves the display ahead; autumn moves it back. It does not tell you whether a particular location observes the change.

Hawaii, most of Arizona and other exceptions

Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time; the Navajo Nation is an important Arizona exception. NIST also lists American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands among places without the seasonal change. Check the specific location rather than assuming an entire travel route follows one rule. A useful planning habit is to compare the departure city and destination city for the actual travel date, then check the return date separately if the trip crosses a transition. Our guides to time in Hawaii and time in London help explain why a familiar time difference should not be treated as permanent. International schedules require their own local checks. News about proposed clock legislation can also be confusing. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s current explanation of the Uniform Time Act is a better reference for operative rules than a headline about a proposal. Check whether an announcement describes an enacted change and its effective date before replacing a calendar rule.

Check phones, manual clocks and shared calendars

Before a transition, check that your phone or computer uses the correct time zone and automatic date-and-time settings, and keep its software current. NIST notes that software and configuration affect automatic adjustments. Do not assume every device in the house behaves the same way. Make a short inventory: phone, computer, car dashboard, oven, wall clock and any standalone alarm you rely on. Identify which devices update themselves and which need manual attention; after the change, compare them with a trusted current-time reference. Avoid manually moving an automatically updating clock and then leaving its automatic adjustment enabled without checking the result. For shared plans, create an event with a named city or time zone and ask participants to confirm the displayed local time. If you are traveling, review both the event’s zone and the device’s current zone; they answer different questions. Save the organizer’s original confirmation rather than relying on a screenshot with an unlabeled time. Finally, review an early departure or appointment the evening before, when there is still time to resolve a mismatch. Those checks are more useful than guessing whether every screen will update correctly.