The Clocks Go Back Twice in a Week
From 25 October to 1 November, London sits four hours ahead of New York and Toronto, so every transatlantic booking in that week needs a second look.
For one week from Sunday, the gap between the UK and North America narrows by an hour, and anything arranged across the Atlantic in that window needs checking. Transfers, guided tours, restaurant holds and client calls worked out as “UK time minus five” will be an hour out until 1 November.
The UK’s clocks go back one hour at 2am on Sunday 25 October, according to GOV.UK. EU countries follow the same pattern, ending summer time on the last Sunday of October, according to the European Commission.
North America waits a week. In the US, daylight saving time runs until 2am local time on Sunday 1 November, says the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Hawaii and Arizona (apart from the Navajo Nation) do not observe it. National Research Council Canada, the country’s official timekeeper, sets the end of daylight time as the first Sunday in November at 2am local time, which is 1 November this year.
The week in numbers
From 25 October to 1 November:
- London is four hours ahead of New York and Toronto, not five.
- London is seven hours ahead of Los Angeles, not eight.
The usual five- and eight-hour gaps return on 1 November.
Western Canada stops changing
This is the first autumn in which three provinces stay put. British Columbia made its final clock change on 8 March and is now on year-round Pacific time at UTC-7, the provincial government says; the East Kootenay and Golden region still changes in line with Alberta. Alberta has adopted year-round Alberta Time at UTC-6, and Manitoba said on 17 September that clocks “will not revert to standard time on Nov. 1.”
That resets the winter gaps. From 25 October, Vancouver is seven hours behind London (eight last winter), Calgary six (seven last winter) and Winnipeg five (six last winter). Toronto and Vancouver are two hours apart from 1 November, and Vancouver runs an hour ahead of Seattle.
Australia and New Zealand
Southern daylight time is already running. New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia put their clocks forward on 4 October, according to the NSW Government; Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not observe daylight saving. New Zealand’s clocks went forward on 27 September, says the New Zealand Government.
Read next · TradeChristmas Rail: Waterloo, Liverpool Street and Scotland Too2 min →When the UK falls back on 25 October, the gap to Sydney widens from 10 hours to 11, and to Auckland from 12 hours to 13. Brisbane moves from nine to ten hours ahead and Perth from seven to eight. Those gaps hold until UK clocks go forward on 28 March 2027.
Sources
- GOV.UK: When do the clocks change?
- European Commission: The application of summertime in Europe (2014)
- NIST: Daylight Saving Time Rules
- National Research Council Canada: Time zones and daylight saving time
- Government of British Columbia: Adopting permanent daylight saving time (2 March 2026)
- Government of Alberta: Alberta’s new time system (ABT)
- Province of Manitoba news release (17 September 2026)
- NSW Government: Daylight saving
- New Zealand Government: Daylight saving in NZ
Alicia Loveday is Managing Editor at Not An Atlas, writing from Calgary, Alberta, amid a little creative chaos: a laptop, an iced coffee and about a hundred ideas she hasn't had time to bring to life yet. She became a mom young and spent her twenties raising two kids, so she was 30 before she saw the ocean for the first time, in Aruba. Gliding through that clear Caribbean water on a Seabob felt like freedom, and she's been making up for lost time ever since. She always takes the window seat (she waited 30 years for the view), never travels without the feather pillow she's had since childhood (they're a package deal), and sizes up a new place with a local cocktail and some serious people-watching. She covers fashion, culture, creativity and the people who shape the places we visit. Friends say creative, fearless and unapologetic. Her mum says stubborn, and she'd be right. Next stop: Japan.
