DST 2024 Starts in the USA
By Sara Kornberg and Mathew Gundersen. Published 12-Feb-2024
Most of the United States starts Daylight Saving Time (DST) on Sunday, March 10, 2024.
The striped areas will start Daylight Saving Time on March 10, 2024.
©timeanddate.com
People in areas that observe Daylight Saving Time (DST) will set their clocks forward one hour from 02:00 (2 am) to 03:00 (3 am) local time on March 10, 2024.
Standard time, also known as winter time, will resume on Sunday, November 3, 2024.
Canada also starts DST on the same date. The majority of Europe starts DST three weeks later, on March 31, 2024.
Affects Most of the USA
Clocks will be set one hour forward in 48 states, including:
The following areas do not change their clocks:
- Hawaii and most of Arizona.
- The US dependencies American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marina Islands, the US Minor Outlying Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.
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19 States Want to “Lock the Clock”
In recent years, the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill that would make DST permanent in many US states, has been proposed a number of times in Congress. It was first presented in 2018 and most recently, by Senator Marco Rubio in March 2023.
In 2022, the legislation was unanimously passed in the Senate but failed to make it beyond the House of Representatives. And since the bill needs to be signed into law, the 19 states that use DST continue with the seasonal time change.
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 start DST on March 10, 2024.
Other Locations That Change
Also starting DST on March 10 are Cuba, Bermuda, The Bahamas, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Thule Air Base in Greenland.
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.