Basics · Daylight time

EDT: Eastern Daylight Time

EDT is UTC−4, the daylight saving setting of Eastern Time. Clocks move to it at 2:00 AM on the second Sunday in March and leave it at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday in November, so it covers almost two-thirds of the year.

UTC offset
−04:00
2027 season
Mar 14 – Nov 7
Length
34 weeks
Next change
Second Sunday in March

When is EDT in effect in 2027?

EDT begins on Sunday, March 14, 2027, when 2:00 AM EST becomes 3:00 AM EDT (07:00 UTC), and ends on Sunday, November 7, 2027, when 2:00 AM EDT becomes 1:00 AM EST (06:00 UTC). That is 238 calendar days, exactly 34 weeks, and because the first day is only 23 hours long, 5,711 hours of elapsed time. The same 34-week length repeats every year under the current rule, as the table shows.

EDT seasons, 2026–2030, with the changeover instants in UTC
YearEDT beginsEDT endsUTC instants
2026Sunday, March 8Sunday, November 1Mar 8 07:00 · Nov 1 06:00
2027Sunday, March 14Sunday, November 7Mar 14 07:00 · Nov 7 06:00
2028Sunday, March 12Sunday, November 5Mar 12 07:00 · Nov 5 06:00
2029Sunday, March 11Sunday, November 4Mar 11 07:00 · Nov 4 06:00
2030Sunday, March 10Sunday, November 3Mar 10 07:00 · Nov 3 06:00

Europe changes on different Sundays, so the gap between New York and London shrinks to four hours for a few weeks each spring and autumn; the DST 2027 page lists those weeks and the countdown. How EDT compares with the standard-time season is set out in EST vs EDT.

Is EDT the same as Atlantic Standard Time?

By offset, yes. Atlantic Standard Time is also UTC−4, so for most of the year New York's clocks match those of San Juan, Puerto Rico, which stays on AST all year, and they equal the time Halifax keeps in winter. In effect, daylight saving moves the whole Eastern zone onto the clock of the 60th meridian, the Atlantic zone's reference line, 15° east of the 75°W meridian behind EST. EDT is Atlantic time under another name.

9:00 AM in New York on a winter and a summer date in 2027
PlaceFriday, January 15 (EST)Thursday, July 15 (EDT)
New York9:00 AM EST9:00 AM EDT
San Juan, Puerto Rico10:00 AM AST9:00 AM AST
Halifax, Nova Scotia10:00 AM AST10:00 AM ADT
UTC14:0013:00

Santo Domingo and Caracas, also UTC−4 all year, line up with San Juan. Halifax stays one hour ahead of New York in every season because it advances its own clocks to ADT, UTC−3, on the same Sundays. The visible consequence of keeping Atlantic time in Eastern cities is that solar noon moves to around 1:00 PM: in New York it falls at about 1:00 PM EDT in late June, against roughly 11:40 AM to 12:10 PM during the EST months.

How does EDT change sunrise and sunset?

EDT does not add daylight; it moves an hour of it from the morning to the evening. New York's latest sunsets, about 8:31 PM EDT from late June into early July, would come at 7:31 PM on standard time, and its earliest sunrise, about 5:24 AM EDT in mid-June, would be 4:24 AM. The western side of the zone gains most: Detroit, 9° of longitude west of New York, sees sunsets around 9:13 PM EDT near the solstice.

New York City sunrise, sunset and solar noon around the 2027 EDT season
DateSunriseSunsetSolar noon
Saturday, March 13 (last EST day)6:11 AM EST6:00 PM EST12:05 PM
Sunday, March 14 (first EDT day)7:10 AM EDT7:02 PM EDT1:05 PM
Sunday, June 27 (latest sunsets)5:27 AM EDT8:31 PM EDT12:59 PM
Saturday, November 6 (last EDT day)7:32 AM EDT5:47 PM EDT12:40 PM
Sunday, November 7 (first EST day)6:33 AM EST4:46 PM EST11:40 AM

The cost appears at the edges of the season. In the last days of EDT New York's sunrise slips to 7:32 AM, the latest of the whole year, before the switch on November 7 pulls sunrise back to 6:33 AM and sunset from 5:47 PM to 4:46 PM overnight. Times above come from a standard solar algorithm for 40.71°N, 74.01°W and are accurate to a minute or two.

Year-round EDT would move New York's January sunrises from about 7:20 AM to 8:20 AM. That is what the Sunshine Protection Act (H.R. 139) proposes, with an opt-out for states. It passed the House 308–117 on July 14, 2026, but as of November 2026 the Senate has not voted on it and it sits with the Senate Commerce Committee, so the March 14, 2027 change is still law. The United States tried permanent daylight time once before, from January 6, 1974, and went back to standard time that October. The state of play is tracked in the daylight saving time guide.

What happens on the night EDT begins?

Spring-forward night, March 14, 2027: Eastern clocks jump from 1:59:59 AM EST to 3:00:00 AM EDT at 07:00 UTC, so 2:00 to 2:59 AM never happens, while UTC runs on without a gap 1:59:59 AM EST → 3:00:00 AM EDT 12:00 AM1:00 AM4:00 AM5:00 AM 3:00 AM Clock (ET) UTC EST · UTC−5 EDT · UTC−4 05:0006:0008:0009:00 07:00 No 2:00–2:59 AM on Eastern clocks: Sunday, March 14, 2027 lasts 23 hours
UTC runs on without a gap; only the local labels jump.

At 1:59:59 AM EST the next second is 3:00:00 AM EDT. The hour from 2:00 to 2:59 AM never appears on Eastern clocks, so 2:30 AM on March 14, 2027 is not a valid local time, and the day is 23 hours long. Phones and computers handle it automatically because they count in UTC and apply the rules for America/New_York; anything without a network connection has to be moved forward by hand.

Software must also decide what to do with a time that does not exist. Most date libraries, and the converter on the live Eastern Time clock page, push it forward by the length of the gap, so a reminder set for 2:30 AM fires at 3:30 AM EDT; job schedulers vary, and some simply skip the run. When EDT ends in November the problem reverses: 1:00 to 1:59 AM occurs twice, and "1:30 AM" could mean 05:30 UTC (still EDT) or 06:30 UTC (already EST). The UTC offset guide explains how to store times so neither night causes trouble.

Frequently asked questions

What is 12:00 PM EDT in Central, Mountain and Pacific time?

11:00 AM CDT, 10:00 AM MDT and 9:00 AM PDT. Arizona is the exception: it stays on MST, UTC−7, so it shows 9:00 AM in summer, the same as Pacific Time.

What is EDT in UTC?

Add four hours. 9:00 AM EDT is 13:00 UTC, and 8:00 PM EDT on July 15 is 00:00 UTC on July 16, because the result crosses midnight.

Do I have to change my clocks for EDT?

Phones and computers switch on their own. Clocks that do not synchronise, such as ovens, microwaves, car dashboards and analog wall clocks, need to go forward one hour; most people do it before bed on the Saturday night.

When was Eastern Daylight Time first used?

On March 31, 1918, under the Standard Time Act passed that March. Daylight saving then came and went by war and local option for decades, until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardised the dates from 1967.

Explore

EST vs EDT

Both settings side by side, which one applies now and when to write ET instead.

EST explained

The UTC−5 standard time behind EDT, its legal basis and its 75°W meridian.

DST 2027

March 14 and November 7, 2027 in detail, with a countdown and world comparisons.