Daylight Saving Time Ends on the First Sunday of November

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Daylight Saving Time ends on the first Sunday of November each year in the U.S. (with the exception of Arizona and Hawaii). In 2024, that will be Sunday, November 3rd at 2 a.m.

At 1:59:59 a.m. on that Sunday, your clocks will revert back to 1 a.m. Yes! FALL BACK!! An extra hour of sleep!

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave us an extra month of DST by starting DST 3 weeks earlier and ending it one week later.

For my more precise readers, it is officially called Daylight Saving (not Savings) Time. So if you want to annoy your friends, correct them any time they call it Daylight SavingS time.

Also as one website I found mentioned, Daylight Saving Time is technically inaccurate, since we don't really gain daylight. It would more appropriately be called Daylight Shifting Time but I don't see that being a high priority initiative.

Before the adoption of standard time zones in the United States, cities, towns, and communities set their own local times based on the sun’s position. In 1883, railroad companies adopted a system of standard time to synchronize movement and trade across the nation. The U.S. adopted an official system of standard time in 1918.

The Standard Time Act of 1918 incorporated a DST mandate from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. Congress repealed the DST mandate in 1919. President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the repeal. Congress overrode his veto.

Beginning in 1920, DST was a local state/city option. Here’s the history of DST legislation in California:

1930: Prop 7 was but on the ballot to implement DST at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April until 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in September. The initiative failed.

1940: Prop 5 was put on the ballot to implement DST. The initiative failed again.

1949: Third time’s a charm. This time it passed.

1962: Prop 6 was passed, which extended DST from the last Sunday in September to the last Sunday in October.

2018: Californians voted in favor of Proposition 7 by a margin of 59.75% to 40.25%. Voting in favor of the proposition allowed the California State Legislature to change the DST period by a 2/3rds vote and to establish permanent, year-round DST in California by a 2/3rds vote if federal law is changed to allow for permanent DST.

Why the holdup?

The holdup is at the federal level, not the state level: Voting yes on Prop 7 was just the first step in the process. California is one of 14 states that introduced legislation in 2019 to shift to permanent daylight saving time. States cannot move forward with permanent daylight saving time without authorization from the federal government.

H.R. 1556 “Sunshine Protection Act of 2019,” was introduced to the House in 2018 and 2019 but failed. It was reintroduced in 2021 as SB 623 and H.R. 69 as the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. The bill would make DST the new, permanent standard time. States with areas exempt from DST may choose the standard time for those areas. SB 623 was passed by the Senate but the House bill died in committee

The Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 (H.R. 1279, SB 582) was introduced March 1, 2023 but as of October 2024 has gone nowhere.

Daylight Saving Time is Back Again on the 2nd Sunday of March

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Daylight Saving** Time is coming back again! Yes, this will take place on Sunday, March 12, 2023. When the clock strikes 2 a.m. that morning, you will lose one hour of beauty sleep. Daylight Saving Time begins in most of the U.S. on the 2nd Sunday of March.

So try to get to bed early that night or you may feel grumpy on Monday! Especially when you realize it feels a lot darker that morning. But the good thing is, it'll be a lot lighter out at dinnertime!

** Contrary to what many of us think, it is called Daylight Saving Time, not Savings Time. Make sure to correct anyone who says it wrong if you really want to get on their nerves. But the reality of it is that we're not saving any daylight, we're just shifting it around.

Before the adoption of standard time zones in the United States, cities, towns, and communities set their own local times based on the sun’s position. In 1883, railroad companies adopted a system of standard time to synchronize movement and trade across the nation. The U.S. adopted an official system of standard time in 1918.

The Standard Time Act of 1918 incorporated a DST mandate from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. Congress repealed the DST mandate in 1919. President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the repeal. Congress overrode his veto.

Beginning in 1920, DST was a local state/city option. Here’s the history of DST legislation in California:

1930: Prop 7 was but on the ballot to implement DST at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April until 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in September. The initiative failed.

1940: Prop 5 was put on the ballot to implement DST. The initiative failed again.

1949: Third time’s a charm. This time it passed.

1962: Prop 6 was passed, which extended DST from the last Sunday in September to the last Sunday in October.

2018: Californians voted in favor of Proposition 7 by a margin of 59.75% to 40.25%. Voting in favor of the proposition allowed the California State Legislature to change the DST period by a 2/3rds vote and to establish permanent, year-round DST in California by a 2/3rds vote if federal law is changed to allow for permanent DST.

Why the holdup?

The holdup is at the federal level, not the state level: Voting yes on Prop 7 was just the first step in the process. California is one of 14 states that introduced legislation in 2019 to shift to permanent daylight saving time. States cannot move forward with permanent daylight saving time without authorization from the federal government. As of November 2019, there were 4 bills awaiting action in Congress that would allow California to be on permanent DST. These were:

H.R. 1556 “Sunshine Protection Act of 2019,” introduced to the House 3/6/19. The bill makes DST the new, permanent standard time. States with areas exempt from DST may choose the standard time for those areas. The bill was pending a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. S.670 is an identical bill in the Senate, pending a hearing in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. These have gone nowhere.

H.R. 1601 “Daylight Act” and H.R. 2389 “To allow states to elect to observe year-round DST” both authorize states to shift to permanent daylight saving time and are pending hearings in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. These have also gone nowhere.