2026 time change dates for Arizona
Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time
Arizona has opted out of Daylight Saving Time since 1968 and stays on Mountain Standard Time. The Navajo Nation, in the north-east corner of the state, is the exception and does change its clocks.
Arizona stays on MST for the whole year.
Countdown to the next change
Technology and Time Changes in 2026
Phones, computers and anything else that syncs with an internet time server handle the transition on their own. What still catches people out in Arizona is the long tail of devices that don't: car dashboards, ovens and microwaves, wall clocks, older thermostats, and cheap alarm clocks with a DST setting hard-coded to a schedule that has since changed.
For anyone running servers, the transitions are a recurring source of bugs — duplicated or missing local timestamps around the changeover, cron jobs that fire twice or not at all, and stale operating system timezone databases. Storing timestamps in UTC and keeping the tzdata package current avoids almost all of it.
Background
- Arizona and Hawaii are the only US states that skip DST statewide, along with the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands.
- The energy case for DST is weak by modern standards. A US Department of Energy study in 2008 found savings of about 0.5% of daily electricity use, and other studies have found no saving at all.
- The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end mandatory clock changes, but member states never agreed on which time to keep, so the change has stalled indefinitely.
Tips for Arizona
Check and replace smoke detector batteries when changing clocks - it's a good reminder!
Set your clocks before going to bed to avoid confusion in the morning.
Update your car clock, microwave, and other manual clocks that don't auto-update.
Consider the time change when scheduling meetings with people in other time zones.
Frequently asked questions
When do the clocks change in Arizona in 2026?
They do not. Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time.
Which way do the clocks go?
"Spring forward, fall back" is the usual mnemonic: forward one hour in spring, back one hour in autumn.
Do I have to change anything myself?
Phones, computers and anything that syncs over the internet update on their own. Car clocks, ovens, microwaves and older wall clocks generally do not.
Is Daylight Saving Time being scrapped?
It has been proposed in many places and adopted in few. The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end mandatory clock changes and the change has stalled; in the United States the Sunshine Protection Act has repeatedly passed the Senate without becoming law. Most of the world that changes its clocks is still changing them.