Does Arizona Observe Daylight Saving Time?

Time Zones in Arizona

Arizona is not on a single clock. It spans 2 zones, which is why two places inside the same state can be an hour apart.

Where the line falls. The Navajo Nation covers much of northeastern Arizona and follows Daylight Saving Time so that its territory keeps one clock across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The Hopi Reservation, entirely surrounded by Navajo land, does not.

What Actually Changes: Sunrise and Sunset

The hour on the clock is not the part anyone notices. This is what the change does to daylight in Phoenix, comparing the day before with the day after.

The amount of daylight barely moves across those two days — roughly the same number of hours either side. What moves is where those hours sit: the clock change shifts them from the evening to the morning, or back again. Full sunrise and sunset detail for Phoenix.

Your Time Differences Still Move

Arizona never touches its clocks, but plenty of time differences involving Arizona change twice a year anyway — because the place at the other end moves. The date is theirs, not yours, and nothing appears to happen locally, which is exactly why a standing call that has worked for months is suddenly an hour out.

Gaps are shown from Arizona's point of view: a positive number means the other city is ahead. Because Arizona stays put, the gap simply narrows or widens by an hour on the other side's date.

What Stands Out About Arizona

Clock time and sun time nearly agree

Phoenix reaches solar noon at 12:14 PM, within 15 minutes of what the clock says. That is about as closely aligned as anywhere in the country gets, and it means the clock in Arizona is an unusually honest description of where the sun actually is.

Daylight swings by 4h 26m across the year

Phoenix gets 14h 22m of daylight at midsummer and 9h 56m in December. The clock change does not add or remove any of that — it moves an hour of it from the evening to the morning, which is why the same rule feels completely different in June and November.

The clock changes at the state line

Arizona borders 3 states on a different clock right now: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico. Crossing any of those borders moves the time, which matters for anyone commuting, delivering or scheduling across the line — and for phones, which switch silently and without asking.

The Next Clock Changes in Arizona

The next move is backwards, which is the one people notice: an hour more sleep, and sunset arriving before most of the working day is over. US clocks change on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. These are the next dates that rule produces for Arizona, computed from the current time zone rules rather than a fixed list — if the rules change, these dates change with them.

The Two Halves of Arizona

Right now the two sides of Arizona are 1 hour apart. That gap holds all year, because both sides change their clocks on the same dates — they simply start from different offsets.

Why Arizona Keeps the Clock It Does

Arizona opted out of Daylight Saving Time in 1968 for a reason that still holds: in Phoenix, an extra hour of summer evening sun means an extra hour of 105°F heat and air conditioning. The result is that Arizona matches California in summer and New Mexico in winter, without ever moving its own clocks.

The consequence is that time differences involving Arizona still move twice a year, but because the other side moved. Nothing appears to happen locally, which is exactly why it catches people out: a call that has been at the same hour for months is suddenly an hour off.

To check an exact gap on an exact date, use the time zone converter, or the meeting planner for a whole group at once.

Crossing the State Line

These neighbouring states are on a different clock from Arizona today. A state border is the most common place to lose or gain an hour without expecting to.

Current Time in Arizona Cities