How many days until Daylight Saving Time Starts?

About Daylight Saving Time Starts

Daylight Saving Time in the United States begins each spring, when clocks are set forward by one hour, shifting an hour of daylight from the early morning to the evening for the following several months. Its start date shifts every year because it is defined by a formula, the second Sunday of March, rather than a fixed day of the month, meaning the exact date depends on how the calendar falls in a given year, and clocks typically change at 2 a.m. local time on that Sunday. The practice's stated original purpose was to make better use of natural daylight and reduce energy consumption, though the actual energy-saving benefits have been debated and studied with mixed results in the decades since the practice became standardized nationally. The specific second-Sunday-of-March start date is relatively recent, since the exact dates for both the start and end of Daylight Saving Time have been adjusted more than once by federal legislation over the decades, most recently shifting to the current schedule in the mid-2000s, which extended the daylight saving period compared to earlier rules. Observance is not universal within the United States, since a small number of states and territories opt out entirely and remain on standard time year-round, a choice permitted under federal law even though states cannot unilaterally adopt permanent daylight saving time without additional federal authorization. A common misconception is assuming Daylight Saving Time is observed uniformly nationwide; in practice, a few states and territories do not participate at all, meaning the March time change simply does not apply in those specific locations.

Dates on this page are checked against public calendar sources. Spot something wrong? Let us know.