US and Europe daylight saving out of sync: what the 2026 clock changes do to your meetings

Your Tuesday call with London starts an hour early. Your colleague in Chicago joins while you are packing up in Berlin. Nothing is wrong with your calendar: you have reached one of the two stretches each year with US and Europe daylight saving out of sync. In 2026 the UK and the European Union set their clocks back on Sunday, October 25, but the United States and Canada wait until Sunday, November 1. For that week, New York is four hours behind London instead of five. The same thing happened in spring, from March 8 to 29.

This guide gives the verified 2026 dates and shows exactly what changes for common city pairs. That includes Australia and New Zealand, which move the opposite way, and India and Singapore, which don't move at all. It explains why recurring meetings and times written in emails behave differently, and ends with a checklist for the week before the clocks change.

US and Europe daylight saving out of sync: the 2026 dates

All times in this table are local clock times.

Between North America and Europe, that leaves two out-of-sync windows in 2026:

• Spring: Sunday, March 8, to Sunday, March 29. North America is already on summer time and Europe isn't. Three working weeks are affected: March 9–13, 16–20 and 23–27.
• Autumn: Sunday, October 25, to Sunday, November 1. Europe is back on standard time and North America isn't. One working week is affected: October 26–30.

Two details catch people out. First, the UK and every EU country change at the same instant, 1:00 AM GMT, so London, Dublin, Berlin and Paris move together. North America changes at 2:00 AM local time in each zone, so the switch rolls west over several hours: New York changes at 06:00 UTC on November 1, Chicago at 07:00 UTC and Los Angeles at 09:00 UTC.

Second, not everyone on either continent changes. Under US rules, Hawaii and most of Arizona stay on standard time all year. In Canada, most of Saskatchewan and all of Yukon don't change. In Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory don't observe daylight saving, so Brisbane and Perth keep the same offset all year.

Why US and European clocks change on different weeks

The two sides of the Atlantic simply follow different rules.

• United States: daylight saving time begins at 2:00 AM on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday of November, according to NIST. Canada's National Research Council describes the same North American schedule for the regions that observe it.
• United Kingdom: clocks go forward one hour at 1:00 AM on the last Sunday in March and back one hour at 2:00 AM on the last Sunday in October, according to GOV.UK.
• European Union: Directive 2000/84/EC sets summer time to begin and end at 1:00 AM GMT on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October, in every member state.

The autumn gap always lasts exactly one week, because the first Sunday in November always falls seven days after the last Sunday in October. The spring gap is two or three weeks, depending on where the second Sunday of March lands. In 2026 it is three weeks.

The Southern Hemisphere runs on reversed seasons, so its clocks go back in April and forward in September or October. New Zealand's daylight saving starts at 2:00 AM on the last Sunday in September and ends at 3:00 AM on the first Sunday in April, according to govt.nz. For New South Wales, the NSW Government lists Sunday, October 4, 2026 as the start date. Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT observe daylight saving too.

India and Singapore don't use daylight saving time at all. Their clocks stay put, but the gap between them and Europe or North America still changes, because the other side moves.

What changes for common city pairs

This is the "time difference between the US and UK is shorter this week" effect. For these pairs the gap shrinks by one hour during both windows.

There's an upside. Assuming a 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM working day on both sides, the out-of-sync week adds an hour of shared working time for these pairs.

• New York and London: usually three hours (9:00 AM to noon in New York, 2:00 to 5:00 PM in London). From October 26 to 30 it's four hours, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM in New York.
• San Francisco and London: usually none. From October 26 to 30 there's one hour, 9:00 to 10:00 AM in San Francisco and 4:00 to 5:00 PM in London.
• Chicago and Berlin: usually one hour. From October 26 to 30 there are two, 9:00 to 11:00 AM in Chicago and 3:00 to 5:00 PM in Berlin.

If a transatlantic decision has been waiting for a longer joint session, this is the week to book it. Recurring meetings, though, shift. Here is what that looks like for real meetings in the autumn window.

New York and London

Sarah in New York runs a weekly 9:00 AM call with a client in London.

• Tuesday, October 20: 9:00 AM in New York is 2:00 PM in London.
• Tuesday, October 27: 9:00 AM in New York is 1:00 PM in London.
• Tuesday, November 3: back to 2:00 PM in London.

If the call is set in London time instead, say 3:00 PM, Sarah sees it at 10:00 AM on October 20, 11:00 AM on October 27 and 10:00 AM again on November 3. The same one-hour shift happened in spring: the call was at 1:00 PM London time on March 10 and 24, and returned to 2:00 PM on March 31.

San Francisco and London

West Coast to UK meetings already squeeze into the London afternoon. An 8:00 AM San Francisco stand-up is 4:00 PM in London on October 20, 3:00 PM on October 27 and 4:00 PM again on November 3. In March it was also 3:00 PM on March 17. For that week, the call no longer runs to the end of London's working day.

Chicago and Berlin

A 10:00 AM Chicago meeting reaches Berlin at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, October 21, 4:00 PM on October 28 and 5:00 PM on November 4. Now look at it from Lukas's side in Berlin. If he wraps up his day with a 5:00 PM call, his Chicago colleagues see it at 11:00 AM on October 27 and 10:00 AM on November 3.

Toronto and Paris

Toronto follows the same schedule as New York, and Paris the same as Berlin. An 11:00 AM Toronto call is 5:00 PM in Paris on Thursday, October 22, 4:00 PM on October 29 and 5:00 PM on November 5.

Australia and New Zealand move the other way

In the Southern Hemisphere, clocks go back in April and forward in September or October. When a pair crosses the equator, the difference changes in steps: once when the north changes, and again when the south does. Between late September and the end of October, that can mean three different gaps in about five weeks.

Dates in this table are the local Sunday of each change.

Take a 9:00 AM London call with Sydney and Auckland. On Tuesday, September 22, it lands at 6:00 PM in Sydney and 8:00 PM in Auckland. After New Zealand moves forward, on September 29, Auckland sees it at 9:00 PM. After Sydney moves, on October 6, Sydney sees 7:00 PM. After London falls back, on October 27, it is 8:00 PM in Sydney and 10:00 PM in Auckland. That's the same London meeting at three different evening times across five weeks.

The US–Australia pair moves too. A Tuesday 5:00 PM call from New York reaches Sydney on Wednesday at 7:00 AM on September 29, 8:00 AM from October 6 and 9:00 AM from November 3. For someone in Sydney, the early start gets two hours later over five weeks. In spring it runs the other way: 9:00 AM on March 4, 8:00 AM on March 11 and 7:00 AM by April 8.

If you're searching for "EST to AEST", check the date first. In 2026, whenever New York is on EST, Sydney is on AEDT, its daylight saving time, so the gap is 16 hours. From April to early October, New York is on EDT and Sydney on AEST, a 14-hour gap. In the weeks between the two sets of changes, it's 15 hours.

Brisbane and Perth don't observe daylight saving, so for colleagues there only the northern change matters.

India and Singapore don't change at all

India and Singapore keep the same clock all year, which makes them a useful reference point and a common source of confusion. Priya in Bengaluru hosts a 6:30 PM weekly sync. A teammate in Singapore joins at 9:00 PM local, with colleagues in London and New York. For Priya and Singapore, nothing moves. For everyone else:

• Tuesday, October 20: 2:00 PM in London, 9:00 AM in New York.
• Tuesday, October 27: 1:00 PM in London, 9:00 AM in New York.
• Tuesday, November 3: 1:00 PM in London, 8:00 AM in New York.

The meeting moves for London one week and for New York the next. If you're the organizer in India, expect two rounds of "is the time still right?" questions.

Remember that "summer time" ends on October 25 for London but November 1 for New York.

Recurring meetings: where they go wrong

A recurring meeting is attached to one time zone, its anchor. People in that zone see the same clock time every week. Everyone else sees it move whenever either side changes its clocks. In an out-of-sync week, someone's meeting moves by an hour even though nobody touched it. These are the failure modes worth checking.

The anchor decides who moves

In the New York–London example, a series set at 9:00 AM New York time moves for London (to 1:00 PM from October 26 to 30). A series set at 3:00 PM London time moves for New York (to 11:00 AM). Neither is wrong, but attendees rarely know which zone a series was created in. The organizer's zone is usually the anchor, but check the event details rather than assuming.

The shifted hour collides with something local

A London-anchored 4:00 PM call with San Francisco is 8:00 AM on the West Coast on October 20, 9:00 AM on October 27 and 8:00 AM again on November 3. If the San Francisco team has its own 9:00 AM stand-up, set in local time, the two meetings overlap for exactly one week. The same thing happens with school runs, commutes and lunch. A New York-anchored 9:00 AM call lands at 1:00 PM in London that week.

Meetings across three or more zones move more than once

The Bengaluru example above moves for London on October 25 and for New York on November 1. Every region that observes daylight saving on its own schedule adds another change. Around late September to early November, a London–New York–Sydney–Auckland group can see four separate shifts.

Anchoring to UTC doesn't remove the shift

Some teams schedule in UTC to avoid daylight saving. That works well for servers and automated jobs, but for people it spreads the change around. A 14:00 UTC meeting is 10:00 AM in New York and 3:00 PM in London on October 20. On October 27 it's 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM, and on November 3 it's 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Only Bengaluru stays put, at 7:30 PM.

Events in the missing or repeated hour

The nights the clocks change have a missing hour or a repeated one. On Sunday, November 1, 2026, 1:00–1:59 AM happens twice in New York, first on EDT and then on EST. On Sunday, October 25, the same hour repeats in London. In spring, 2:00–2:59 AM never happened in New York on March 8, and 1:00–1:59 AM never happened in London on March 29. Overnight maintenance windows, early calls with Sydney and automated sends in those hours deserve a second look. The safest fix is to state them in UTC.

Calendar invites vs times written in emails

Most inboxes hold two kinds of meeting time: the ones inside calendar invites and the ones typed into messages. They behave differently when the clocks change, and knowing which is which explains most of the surprises.

Calendar invites carry a time zone

Calendar invites sent by email generally use the iCalendar format, defined in RFC 5545. In that format an event's start time can be stored in one of three ways, and each one reacts to a clock change differently.

• A local time with a named time zone (for example, 9:00 AM in America/New_York). The event keeps the same clock time in that zone. Calendar software shows it in your own zone for that date. So in the week of October 26, a New York 9:00 AM call appears at 1:00 PM for someone in London. The invite is doing its job. The surprise comes from people who remember the usual difference.
• A time in UTC. The event keeps the same moment in UTC and, as shown above, moves for everyone whose clocks change.
• A "floating" local time with no time zone. The event shows at the same clock time wherever you are. That suits reminders like "lunch", but it's wrong for a call between two countries.

The standard also covers the missing hour. A local time that doesn't exist, such as 2:30 AM in New York on the spring-forward night, is read using the offset from before the gap. In practice, it lands at 3:30 AM.

To check an invite, open the event details and look for the time zone it was created in. Then look at the first occurrence inside the out-of-sync week rather than the next one.

Times written in an email don't update

"Weekly sync: Tuesdays, 9 AM ET / 2 PM UK" is plain text. It was right when you wrote it in September and it's wrong from October 26 to 30. Nothing converts it. The same goes for agendas, meeting notes, shared documents, "available 9–5 GMT" lines in signatures, out-of-office replies and deadlines like "by 5 PM London time on Friday".

Abbreviations written in October are often stale too. New York is on EDT, not EST, until November 1. London runs an hour ahead of GMT until October 25. Writers use "EST" and "GMT" all year, and readers convert them literally. Our guide to ambiguous time zone abbreviations covers the details.

A written time survives a clock change when it carries its own context:

• The date. "Tuesday, October 27", not "next Tuesday".
• The anchor city. "9:00 AM New York time" is clearer than "9 AM ET" for readers outside North America.
• The other local time for that date. "9:00 AM New York time (1:00 PM in London that week)".

For a recurring series, name the exception once: "9:00 AM New York time every Tuesday, which is 2:00 PM in London, except 1:00 PM from October 26 to 30." There's more on this in how to write time zones in an email.

A checklist for the out-of-sync week

Work through this list in the week before the clocks change: around October 19–23, or in the first week of March. For choosing a fair new time when a shift makes a slot unworkable, see how to schedule meetings across time zones.

The week before

1. List your recurring meetings that include anyone in another region, and note the time zone each series is anchored to.
2. Work out each attendee's local time for October 26–30, using the tables above or a converter set to that exact date.
3. Decide who moves. Either keep the anchor, so someone's meeting shifts by an hour for a week, or move the series for that week. If the same people always absorb the change, rotate it.
4. Tell attendees once, in a short email with the dates and both local times (there's a template below).
5. Fix written times in agendas, event descriptions, shared documents, signatures and out-of-office replies.
6. Check anything scheduled in UTC or by automation, such as reminders, reports and maintenance windows.
7. Check deadlines set in another region's time, and convert them for the specific date.

During the week

• Confirm the first affected meeting in your calendar for that date, not the week before.
• Put the city and the date on every new time you propose. For example: "Wednesday, October 28, 10:00 AM Chicago / 4:00 PM Berlin."
• Check someone's current local time before you call or send a message that expects a quick answer. Our guide to seeing a sender's local time in Gmail covers the manual ways to do it.

After the clocks realign

• From Monday, November 2, the usual differences are back: New York–London is five hours again.
• Undo any temporary moves and check the first regular occurrence.
• Note next year's dates now. In 2027, US clocks change on March 14 and November 7, and UK and EU clocks on March 28 and October 31. The spring gap is two weeks in 2027, and the autumn gap is one week, as always.

A template you can copy

Subject: Tuesday call during the clock change

Hi all, a quick note about the week of October 26. Our Tuesday call stays at 9:00 AM New York time. Europe changes its clocks a week before the US, so on October 27 the call is at 1:00 PM in London instead of 2:00 PM. From November 3 it's back to 2:00 PM in London. No calendar change is needed.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• NIST: Daylight Saving Time (DST): US rules and the 2026 dates (March 8 and November 1, 2:00 AM local time), plus the states and territories that don't observe DST.
• National Research Council Canada: time zones and daylight saving time: the North American schedule in Canada and the regions that don't observe it.
• GOV.UK: When do the clocks change?: UK rules and the 2026 dates (March 29 and October 25).
• Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements: EU summer time from 1:00 AM GMT on the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
• NSW Government: daylight saving: 2026 start date and which Australian states and territories observe daylight saving.
• New Zealand Government: daylight saving: New Zealand's rules and 2026 start date.
• IANA Time Zone Database: the source for every offset and conversion in this guide.
• RFC 5545 (iCalendar): how calendar invites store times with a time zone, in UTC or as floating local time.