Explain Like I'm Five · by Mariam Al Mansoori · 2026-10-30

ELI5: Why does Europe change its clocks a week before the US?

Europe set its clocks back last Sunday and the US does it this Sunday, so for one week every meeting between New York and London is an hour 'off'. I get that it's a law thing, but why didn't everyone just pick the same weekend? And is it true that the EU voted to stop changing clocks years ago, so why are they still doing it?

20 sparks · 4 comments

Comments

Sleepy Coder · 12 likes

as someone who schedules calls across 4 timezones, this week is my personal hell

Mara Fischer · 9 likes

the EU parliament did vote to scrap it in 2019 but member states have to agree which time to keep, permanent summer or permanent winter, and they never did

Mateo Cruz · 0 likes

simple version: each country or bloc writes its own rule. EU says 'last sunday of october', US changed theirs in 2007 to 'first sunday of november'. nobody coordinated because nobody had to

Lena Müller · 0 likes

and the US one moved partly because of an argument about energy savings and, i kid you not, longer trick or treating light