Earlier nights and an extra hour of sleep: Here’s when daylight saving time ends in Idaho
Autumn has arrived, which means we’re just weeks away from having the clocks fall back. Since the clocks changed in March, Boise, along with most of Idaho, has been running on Mountain Daylight Time. But starting the first Sunday of November, the clocks will revert to Mountain Standard Time.
While there have been several efforts to end the clock change in recent years, for now, it’s still in effect. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the change.
When does daylight saving time end?
This year, the end of daylight saving time falls on Sunday, Nov. 3. At 2 a.m. that day, clocks will turn back to 1 a.m., giving you an extra hour to sleep in.
How quickly will it get dark in Idaho?
The first day of fall was Sunday, Sept. 22 — and the sun was already starting to set earlier through the summer. Setting the clocks back by an hour will only accelerate that process.
While the sun has been setting around 7:45 p.m. recently in Boise, according to TimeAndDate.com, by the start of November, the sun will set just after 6:30 p.m.
In the week after the clocks change, the sun is expected to set around 5:30 p.m.
What about efforts to end daylight saving?
There’s been a nationwide push to end the annual clock changes. Back in 2022, the Senate passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent, but the bill never made it to a vote in the House.
In Idaho, the situation is a little more complicated, and depends on its neighbors. In 2019, Washington passed a bill to switch to daylight saving time full-time. The following year, Idaho passed a law saying that the northern parts of the state that operate on Pacific time would switch to daylight saving time year-round whenever Washington’s law takes effect. However, federal law doesn’t allow states to use daylight time year-round, although they are allowed to use standard time year-round. So until Congress allows the change, Washington’s proposal can’t take effect, meaning the northern portion of Idaho still changes its clocks twice a year.
There have also been statewide efforts to end the time change. Earlier this year, a bill was proposed that would put Idaho on standard time year-round. It passed the House on a vote of 46-23, with one abstention, but didn’t make it out of committee in the Senate.
This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 4:00 AM.