Still Falling Back: DST Ends in the US 2024
By Sara Kornberg and Mathew Gundersen. Published 7-Oct-2024
Despite efforts by 19 states to make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent, most of the US will “fall back” to standard time on Sunday, November 3, 2024. The DST debate continues, but the time shift stays for now.
DST ends in the US and Canada on Sunday, November 3, 2024.
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Clocks will be set back 1 hour from 02:00 (2 am) to 01:00 (1 am), local time, on Sunday, November 3, 2024.
Canada also ends DST on the same date.
DST in the US starts again on Sunday, March 9, 2025.
28 Days Longer than in Europe
In Europe, DST will end a week before the US on October 27, 2024.
In 2007, the United States implemented changes to “spring forward” earlier and “fall back” later. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by President Bush, extended Daylight Saving Time to last 238 days, giving Americans more daylight hours in the evening during much of the year. By comparison, Daylight Saving Time in Europe lasts 210 days.
Affects Most of the USA
Most areas in the US change their clocks, except for the following territories:
- Hawaii and most of Arizona.
- The US dependencies of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marina Islands, the US Minor Outlying Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.
19 States Want to “Lock the Clock”
Even though all US states, with two exceptions, use DST, they have different opinions on the best DST practice going forward.
Currently, 19 states want to “lock the clock” and stay on year-round summer time.
Hate clock changes? This expert disagrees
Will the Sun be setting on DST in the US for good? 19 states have passed legislations to get rid of the practice, but Congress still needs to give final approval.
©iStockphoto.com/Daniel Lange
One of the senators who has argued for this solution is Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the man behind the Sunshine Protection Act:
“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid. Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done.”
Permanent Standard Time Also an Option
Any move to permanent DST requires national-level approval in the USA.
Because recent permanent DST bills have stalled in the US Congress, there have been more recent efforts to focus on a move to permanent standard time instead. Any move to year-round standard time does not require national-level approval.
There is a collective drive for permanent standard time (in the US and Canada) from British Columbia, California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Other states in the US are also making moves at a state level to make standard time permanent.
Mexico Removed DST in 2022
Most of Mexico doesn’t have DST. The North American country chose to remove DST permanently in October 2022. However, the change caused both confusion and problems along the US border.
Northern Mexican border towns, such as Tijuana and Juárez (Ciudad Juárez), align their times with the DST schedules of the USA and Canada and will also end DST on November 3, 2024.
Other Locations That Change
DST will also end on November 3 in Cuba, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Thule Air Base, officially known as Pituffik Space Base since 2023, in Greenland.
Upcoming DST changes worldwide
Set Clocks Back or Ahead?
Daylight Saving Time (DST) shifts the local sunrise and sunset times forward one hour, resulting in more evening daylight. To remember which way to set your watch, keep in mind one of these sayings: “spring forward, fall back” or “spring ahead, fall behind.”
The clocks spring ahead (= losing one hour) in the spring when DST starts, and they fall behind one hour (= gaining one hour) when DST ends in the fall.