Daylight Saving Time for 2021 started on March 14 and ends on Sunday, November 7, 2021. Here’s when to turn back your clocks for the time change tonight.
Daylight Saving Time Ends on Sunday, November 7 at 2 a.m. Local Time
Daylight Saving Time officially ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 7, so you can either change your clocks then or simply set them back an hour before you go to bed on Saturday night. The phrase to help you remember is “spring forward, fall back,” as in turn your clocks forward one hour in the spring and turn your clocks back one hour in the fall.
If you’re worried about your cell phone and any possible wake-up alarms on Sunday morning, don’t be — if a cell phone is on WIFI or data, it will automatically change over at 2 a.m. local time.
According to Android Central, “you shouldn’t have to do a thing.”
“We’ve got some good news here — you shouldn’t have to do a thing! Unless you went into your phone’s settings and switched away from the automatic network time (in which case you already know what to do), you won’t have to do anything. Your Android phone will automatically check the network for the correct date and time and switch on its own overnight, changing the system time so that things like calendars and alarms will still be correct,” says the Android Central website.
If you’re worried about your phone being turned off, don’t be — Android Central also says that your phone “correct to Daylight Saving Time once it is turned on and reconnects to your cellular network.”
You Only Change If You Live In A State That Observes Daylight Saving Time
Most states in the U.S. observe Daylight Saving Time, but if you live in Hawaii or Arizona, you are off the hook. According to TIME, Arizona stopped observing Daylight Saving Time in 1968 — though the Navajo Nation reservation does observe daylight saving time because it is in Arizona but also in Utah and New Mexico, which do observe DST, so the nation has chosen to switch its clocks along with those states.
Hawaii stopped observing Daylight Saving Time in 1967 because it is so small and so close to the equator that its sunrise and sunset are basically the same year-round, so there really is no point in observing DST.
American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands also do not observe Daylight Saving Time. In fact, it is mostly only observed in the United States, Europe and parts of Australia. And that may be changing soon.
More states are looking to follow in Arizona and Hawaii’s footsteps. According to USA Today, in the past four years, 19 states have enacted legislation to observe Daylight Saving Time year-round and not change their clocks at all. The states include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
But changing would require a change in federal law, so for now, most states are stuck with changing their clocks twice a year. Future Daylight Saving Time dates are as follows: In 2022, it starts on March 13 and ends on November 6; in 2023, it starts on March 12 and ends on November 5; and in 2024, it starts on March 10 and ends on November 3.
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