Kidfly182 · CC BY 4.0 · adjusted
The National Institute of Standards and Technology says U.S. daylight saving time in 2026 ends at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, the first Sunday of November. At that instant the clock falls back to 1 a.m. and that hour is repeated, so most of the country gets an extra hour of standard time before Monday travel. NIST publishes the 2026 window as March 8 at 2 a.m. through November 1 at 2 a.m. on its Daylight Saving Time Rules page.
If you fly, ride, or check into a hotel that weekend, treat every ticket, boarding pass, and park calendar as local time and confirm it after the switch, not before. Guests already planning a Florida stay can pair the clock change with current Walt Disney World ticket dates, because posted park hours move with local time once November 1 arrives.
- When: 2 a.m. local time Sunday, November 1, 2026, clocks fall back to 1 a.m.
- Who: Most U.S. states and the Navajo Nation; not Hawaii, Arizona (outside the Navajo Nation), Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, or American Samoa.
- What to do: Recheck flight, train, hotel, and attraction times in local time after the extra hour.
- Rule: The Energy Policy Act of 2005 set the end date as the first Sunday of November.
- Watch: Europe already returns to standard time on October 25, so transatlantic offsets shift for one week.
November 1 Is the 2 a.m. Switch
NIST, the official U.S. timekeeper for public time-of-day services, states the current rule in plain numbers. Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday of March, when local clocks jump to 3 a.m. It ends at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November, when local clocks return to 1 a.m. and that hour is lived twice. In 2026 those calendar dates are March 8 and November 1.
The November date is not a NIST invention. Section 110 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, posted on GovInfo, amended the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Congress struck “last Sunday of October” and inserted “first Sunday of November,” with the change taking effect in 2007.
NIST notes that the U.S. Department of Transportation regulates time zones and daylight saving time, while NIST observes those rules when it distributes time to the public.
For a traveler, the load-bearing fact is local time on the ticket, not UTC and not the phone clock you set the night before. Airline, rail, and hotel systems store most consumer times in the local zone of the station or property.
After 2 a.m. on November 1, that zone is standard time in the states that observe the change. A 6 a.m. departure still leaves at 6 a.m. local, but the sun, the previous night’s sleep, and any device still on daylight saving time will not agree unless you update them.
Flight, Hotel, and Boarding Time Checks
Recheck the itinerary in the airline or rail app on Saturday, October 31, and again after you wake on November 1. If a connection crosses a zone that does not observe daylight saving time, the offset between cities can change even when each ticket still prints the same local hour. NIST lists Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona (except the Navajo Nation) as places that do not observe daylight saving time.
Overnight flights that take off late on October 31 and land on November 1 are the easy place to misread elapsed time. The extra hour exists on the ground in observing states; it does not add block time in the air. Use the local arrival stamp on the boarding pass, then add a buffer for bag claim and ground transport that now starts in darkness relative to the old evening clock.
Hotels and vacation rentals usually run on the property’s local time for check-in and checkout. If you book a 4 p.m. check-in for Sunday, November 1, that is 4 p.m. standard time, one hour earlier in sun position than the Saturday 4 p.m. you had under daylight saving time.
Ask the desk for the local cutoff if you are arriving from a non-observing state or from Europe, where clocks already went back on October 25. Deep Arrival’s earlier note on the four-hour transatlantic gap from October 25 covers that week of offset, and this November 1 switch is the date the U.S. side catches up.
Arizona, Hawaii, and Territories Stay on Standard Time
NIST’s exception list is the traveler’s filter, not a trivia sidebar. Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time year-round except on the Navajo Nation, which does observe daylight saving time. A Phoenix arrival and a Window Rock meeting on the same November weekend are not in the same clock regime. Hawaii stays on Hawaii Standard Time. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands stay on Atlantic Standard Time. Guam uses Chamorro Standard Time. American Samoa uses Samoa Standard Time.
If your itinerary mixes an observing state with one of those exceptions, do not assume both sides “fall back.” Only the observing side moves. A Sunday flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu does not pick up an extra hour in Hawaii; Los Angeles does. A Sunday flight from Phoenix to Denver does pick up the Denver change, not a Phoenix change. Write the local time for each city on the same card before you sleep on October 31.
NIST also warns that computers and phones apply the switch through the operating system, not through the NIST time feed itself. Network Time Protocol from NIST carries Coordinated Universal Time. Your device adds the zone and the daylight saving flag. Install the latest OS update before the weekend if a work laptop still fails to roll clocks, then confirm the lock screen against a hotel clock or airport display on Sunday morning.
Park Hours and Evening Light After the Extra Hour
Theme parks, national parks, and city attractions post hours in local time. After November 1, sunset arrives earlier on the clock in observing states, so evening park time, outdoor dining, and last-entry windows feel shorter even when the printed closing hour is unchanged. Morning rope drop and first seating get more daylight on the clock. That is the planning trade: darker evenings, brighter early starts.
Walt Disney World, other Florida parks, and most U.S. mountain and desert parks will publish November calendars in local time. Use the official calendar for the exact operating day, then walk the outdoor list in daylight. If you already hold tickets, the product itself does not change at 2 a.m.; the sun angle against those hours does. Keep a paper or screenshot of Sunday hours in case a phone is still mid-update when you reach the gate.
National park roads that already run seasonal hours, such as shuttle seasons and sunrise viewpoints, are the other place the extra hour shows up. A 6 a.m. viewpoint that felt dark in October can be usable in November standard time, while a 5 p.m. rim walk loses the last light sooner. Check the park’s current conditions page for the Sunday you travel, not a generic “fall hours” blog post.
| If you… | What to do |
|---|---|
| Fly, ride, or drive in an observing state on November 1 | Treat every ticket as local time and recheck the app after 2 a.m. |
| Connect through Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or another NIST exception | Only the observing city falls back; write both local times before you sleep. |
| Hold park or attraction tickets for that Sunday | Use the official local-time calendar; evenings get dark earlier on the clock. |
| Travel between the U.S. and Europe from October 25 to November 1 | Plan the one-week offset, then resume the usual gap after the U.S. switch. |
October 31 evening is the last daylight saving night in observing states. Set alarms in local time, not on a second phone still in another zone.
2 a.m. November 1 is the switch. The hour from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. happens twice; overnight staffed desks and some airport processes run on that repeated hour.
November 2 is the first full standard-time weekday. Recheck commute, school, and tour pickups that you booked against October daylight.
When do US clocks fall back in 2026?
NIST says 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026. Clocks return to 1 a.m. and that hour is repeated.
Do I change my flight time on November 1?
No. The printed local departure stays the local hour. Confirm the app after the switch so the device zone matches the ticket.
Which US places do not change clocks?
NIST lists Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona except the Navajo Nation.
Why is the date November 1 instead of late October?
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the Uniform Time Act so daylight saving time ends on the first Sunday of November.
When did Europe already change?
The United Kingdom and much of Europe go back on the last Sunday of October, which is October 25, 2026, one week before the U.S. switch.
Will Disney World hours change at 2 a.m.?
Posted hours stay in local time. After November 1, evenings are darker on the clock, so use the official calendar for that Sunday.
