When Do the Clocks Change in Arkansas?

Time Zones in Arkansas

Arkansas keeps one clock statewide, covering the whole state. It is 7:55 AM there right now.

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 Little Rock, 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 Little Rock.

What Stands Out About Arkansas

Solar noon is at 12:55 PM, not noon

The sun reaches its highest point over Little Rock at 12:55 PM, so the clock runs 56 minutes ahead of the sun. That gap has nothing to do with Daylight Saving Time and never changes: it is simply where Arkansas sits inside an hour-wide time zone.

Daylight swings by 4h 40m across the year

Little Rock gets 14h 29m of daylight at midsummer and 9h 49m 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.

One clock, 15 minutes of real difference

Fort Smith and Jonesboro read exactly the same time, but they are 3.7 degrees of longitude apart — about 15 minutes of real solar time. The sun sets that much later at the western end of Arkansas than the eastern end, every single day, and no clock change affects it.

The Next Clock Changes in Arkansas

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 Arkansas, computed from the current time zone rules rather than a fixed list — if the rules change, these dates change with them.

Why Arkansas Keeps the Clock It Does

Arkansas is entirely on Central Time and has never been split, which makes it one of the simpler clocks in a region full of exceptions — its neighbours Tennessee, Texas and Missouri all touch a second zone somewhere.

The practical consequence is that every time difference involving Arkansas shifts by an hour on Sunday, November 1, 2026. Anything recurring across that date — a standing call, an automated report, a flight connection — is worth checking, especially against places that change on a different date or not at all.

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

Current Time in Arkansas Cities