Daylight Saving Time Ends In VA: Here's When Clocks Fall Back

Winter is coming, and as the days grow shorter, Virginians will soon need to adjust their clocks because the end of daylight saving time is just around the corner.

This year, daylight saving time ends on Sunday, Nov. 2. That means at 2 a.m., most Americans will set their clocks back an hour, unless they update automatically.

The switch to standard time means we’ll have an hour less daylight at the end of the day and an hour more in the morning. Sunrise on Nov. 2 is at 6:36 a.m. in Northern Virginia, and sunset is 5:06 p.m.

The “fall back” to standard time is only temporary, unless something unexpected happens in Congress, which is unlikely. As the calendar stands now, we’ll spring forward again on Sunday, March 8, 2026.

The idea of daylight saving time was first implemented more than a century ago by the Standard Time Act of 1918. It was designed to conserve energy by adding more daylight hours to work shifts.

How effective daylight saving time is as an energy conservation measure is debatable. A 2008 Energy Department study found DST saved the country nearly 1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, but a 2018 meta analysis of 44 studies found only a meager 0.34 percent decrease in energy consumption. A 2011 study based in Indiana, which has a complicated and messy history with DST, found slightly more energy usage during daylight saving time.

Daylight saving time is also complicated in Arizona, which stopped observing it in 1968 based on the energy needs of a hot, desert climate. Shifting an hour of daylight from the morning to the end of the day, when temperatures are typically the hottest, translated to more air conditioning use rather than less.

However, the Navajo Nation in the northeastern part of the state does observe DST. The Hopi Nation, which surrounds it, does not.

The only other state that doesn’t observe DST is Hawaii, where it’s a moot point. The length of days and temperatures in Hawaii remain fairly consistent during the year due to the tropical state’s proximity to the equator.

Three years ago, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to adopt year-round daylight saving time and briefly buoyed the hopes of some Americans who want to dispense with the twice-a-year ritual of changing their clocks. However, the bill didn’t make it out of committee in the House, where some lawmakers favored year-round standard time.

Virginia lawmakers took up the issue of daylight saving time again this year when two bills were introduced, proposing that the state do away with the practice, contingent on a change to federal law. Both proposals failed.

A poll conducted this year by Gallup revealed that the majority of Americans (54 percent) say they are ready to do away with the practice of daylight saving time. By contrast, 40 percent of U.S. adults say they are in favor of daylight saving time, while 6 percent are uncertain.

The poll marked the first time Gallup has measured Americans’ opinions about daylight saving time since 1999. During the 26-year interlude, views about the practice have shifted dramatically. In 1999, 73 percent favored daylight saving time, similar to the 74 percent who did so in a 1990 poll. Support was more muted in readings from 1937 to 1957, when between 51 percent and 57 percent were in favor, though daylight saving time was not uniformly observed across the U.S. in that period.