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When is summer time 2024? What is that? When should you “fall back”?

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  • Clocks are “set back” an hour, resulting in an extra hour of sleep and brighter mornings.
  • While the Sunshine Protection Act to make Daylight Saving Time permanent in 2022 passed the Senate, it has not yet passed the House.
  • Lawmakers continue to advocate for the law and aim to end the biannual time change.

It'll be over soon.

No, not Election Day, which comes later this week. But Daylight Saving Time, the twice-yearly time change that affects millions of Americans.

At 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, clocks in most, but not all, states will be “set back” an hour, allowing people an extra hour of sleep and more daylight in the morning.

The time change impacts the daily lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, causing clocks to change, contributing to less sleep in the following days and, of course, earlier sunsets.

Here's what you should know about the end of daylight saving time.

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What is Daylight Saving Time?

Daylight saving time is the time between March and November when most Americans set their clocks ahead by one hour.

In November we gain an hour (instead of losing an hour in the spring) to have more daylight on winter mornings. As we “spring forward” in March, it’s all about adding more daylight in the evenings. In the Northern Hemisphere, the fall equinox is on Sunday, September 22nd, marking the start of the fall season.

When does daylight saving time end in 2024?

Daylight Saving Time ends for the year on Sunday, November 3rd, when we “fall back” and gain an extra hour of sleep.

Next year it starts again on Sunday, March 9, 2025.

When exactly does daylight saving time end?

On Sunday, November 3, clocks will go back one hour at 2 a.m. local time.

When did daylight saving time start in 2024?

Daylight Saving Time in 2024 began at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, March 10, when our clocks moved forward one hour as part of the twice-yearly time change.

Does every state observe daylight saving time?

Not all states and US territories participate in Daylight Saving Time.

Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Due to the desert climate, Arizona does not observe daylight saving time (except for the Navajo Nation). After most of the United States passed the Uniform Time Act, the state concluded that there was no good reason to change clocks so that sunset was an hour later during the hottest months of the year.

There are also five other US territories that are not participating:

  • American Samoa
  • Guam
  • Northern Mariana Islands
  • Puerto Rico
  • US Virgin Islands

The Navajo Nation, located in parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, follows daylight saving time.

Hawaii is the other state that does not observe Daylight Saving Time. Due to its proximity to the equator, there is not much difference in daylight hours throughout the year.

Is summer time ending?

The push to stop the time change was brought to Congress in recent years, when the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act in 2022, a bill to make daylight saving time permanent.

Although the Sunshine Protection Act passed unanimously in the Senate in 2022, it did not pass the U.S. House of Representatives and President Joe Biden did not sign it.

A version of the law from 2023 also remained unsettled in Congress.

In a press release on Monday, US Senator Marco Rubio made another push for making daylight saving time permanent.

The senator recommended that the nation “stop putting up with the ridiculous and antiquated practice of turning our clocks back and forth. Let’s finally pass my Sunshine Protection Act and end the need to ‘back away’ and ‘spring forward’ once and for all.”

Contributor: Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY.

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