The short answer for 2026: the US and Canada spring forward on Sunday 8 March and fall back on Sunday 1 November. The EU and UK move forward on Sunday 29 March and back on Sunday 25 October. Most of Australia (the DST states) puts clocks back on Sunday 5 April and forward on Sunday 4 October. Large parts of the world, including India, China, Japan and most of Africa, do not change at all.
Daylight saving is the single most common reason a cross-border meeting silently slips by an hour. The dates below are the ones to put in your calendar, but the more useful thing to understand is why they differ, because that gap is where the mistakes happen.
United States & Canada
Most of the US and Canada follow the same rule: clocks change at 2:00 AM local time, springing forward on the second Sunday of March and falling back on the first Sunday of November.
| Region | Spring forward | Fall back |
|---|---|---|
| US & Canada (most) | Sun 8 March 2026 | Sun 1 November 2026 |
Exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona in the US, and Saskatchewan in Canada, stay on standard time all year.
United Kingdom & European Union
The UK and the EU change on the same dates, at 1:00 AM UTC: the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October. The UK calls its summer time British Summer Time (BST); most of continental Europe moves between Central European Time and Central European Summer Time.
| Region | Clocks forward | Clocks back |
|---|---|---|
| UK & EU | Sun 29 March 2026 | Sun 25 October 2026 |
Australia & New Zealand
The southern hemisphere runs in reverse: summer falls over December–February, so clocks go back in April and forward in October. Only some Australian states observe DST.
| Region | Clocks back (DST ends) | Clocks forward (DST starts) |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (NSW, VIC, SA, ACT, TAS) | Sun 5 April 2026 | Sun 4 October 2026 |
| New Zealand | Sun 5 April 2026 | Sun 27 September 2026 |
Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not observe daylight saving, so within Australia the number of time zones effectively jumps from three to five for half the year.
Which countries don't change at all?
A large share of the world keeps the same time year-round. That includes most of Asia (India, China, Japan, Singapore, the Gulf states), most of Africa, and, more recently, Brazil (which abolished DST in 2019) and most of Mexico (2022). For scheduling, these are the easy ones: the offset never moves.
Why the dates matter for meetings
Because the US changes three weeks before Europe in spring, there is a window each March when the gap between New York and London is 4 hours instead of the usual 5. The same thing happens in autumn. A recurring 9:00 AM New York call that is normally 2:00 PM in London becomes 1:00 PM in London for those weeks, and nobody updates the invite.
If you have any recurring international meeting, check the local time on the actual date during these weeks. The offset you memorised will be wrong for about three weeks twice a year. See UTC vs GMT for why a fixed UTC reference avoids this.
The reliable way to stay ahead of it
You can track all of this by hand, but it is exactly the kind of bookkeeping software should do for you. Atlas knows each teammate's time zone and its daylight-saving rules, so the overlap it shows you is always correct for the real date, and when you book, the meeting lands at the right local time for everyone, clock change or not.
Frequently asked
When do the clocks change in the US in 2026?
When do the clocks change in the UK and Europe in 2026?
Why don't the US and Europe change clocks on the same day?
Which countries do not observe daylight saving time?
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