Daylight saving time 2026 in Michigan: clocks fall back Nov. 1, the night after Halloween, and a bill to end the switch is still stuck

LANSING, Mich. — Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, when Michigan clocks fall back one hour to 1 a.m. Most phones and computers change on their own. Wall clocks, ovens and car dashboards do not.

Federal law sets the schedule: daylight time starts on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. This year that puts the change the night after Halloween, which falls on a Saturday.

One last late sunset for trick-or-treaters. Because Halloween is still on daylight time, the sun sets in Detroit at about 6:26 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, by The Mitten Daily’s calculation. A day later, after the change, it sets at about 5:25 p.m. Sunrise jumps the other way, from about 8:04 a.m. Saturday to about 7:05 a.m. Sunday.

Approximate sunset times around the state (Eastern time unless noted):

Grand Rapids: 6:35 p.m. Saturday, 5:34 p.m. Sunday. Lansing: 6:31 p.m., then 5:30 p.m. Traverse City: 6:32 p.m., then 5:30 p.m. Marquette: 6:35 p.m., then 5:33 p.m. Sault Ste. Marie: 6:23 p.m., then 5:21 p.m. Ironwood (Central time): 5:46 p.m., then 4:45 p.m. Menominee (Central time): 5:39 p.m., then 4:37 p.m.

The days keep shrinking until the winter solstice, Dec. 21, when the sun sets at about 5:02 p.m. in Detroit, 4:52 p.m. in Sault Ste. Marie and 4:10 p.m. Central time in Menominee. Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson and Menominee counties, along the Wisconsin line, are the only parts of Michigan on Central time, and they fall back at the same moment by their own clocks.

The bill that stalled. State Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell, introduced Senate Bill 126 in March 2025. It would have put the question of ending daylight saving time on the November 2026 ballot. “We should let the people of Michigan decide once and for all,” Albert said when he introduced it, calling the claimed energy savings “questionable at best” and saying the benefits aren’t worth “the disrupted sleep, and the possible health and safety concerns raised by the time change.”

The bill drew Republican and Democratic co-sponsors but was sent to the Senate Government Operations Committee the day it was introduced, and the Legislature’s records show no action since a co-sponsor was added in March 2025. So the question is not on the Nov. 3 ballot. Albert told WKAR this spring that the issue “comes and goes very quickly twice a year,” and that he plans to keep raising it.

Why not permanent daylight time? Federal law lets a state opt out of daylight saving time and stay on standard time all year, as Hawaii and most of Arizona do. It does not let a state stay on daylight time all year. “Federal law only gives us one option,” Albert told WKAR. Year-round standard time would leave winter clocks as they are now but move every summer sunset an hour earlier. In Detroit, the longest day of the year would end at about 8:12 p.m. instead of about 9:12 p.m.

Michigan has fought over this before. Michigan voters rejected daylight saving time in 1968 and then approved it in 1972, and both votes were fairly close, according to Albert’s office. The state began observing it in 1973, WKAR reported.

Sources:
Michigan Legislature, Senate Bill 126 of 2025, bill history (introduced and referred March 6, 2025; co-sponsor added March 11, 2025), https://legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2025-SB-0126
Office of Sen. Thomas Albert, “Sen. Albert calls for allowing Michigan voters to decide future of daylight saving time,” March 6, 2025 (bill purpose, quotes, 1968 and 1972 votes), https://www.senatorthomasalbert.com/sen-albert-calls-for-allowing-michigan-voters-to-decide-future-of-daylight-saving-time/
WKAR, “Michigan clocks spring forward as bill to end daylight saving time stalls,” March 6, 2026 (co-sponsors, committee status, Albert quotes, 1973), https://www.wkar.org/wkar-news/2026-03-06/michigan-clocks-spring-forward-as-bill-to-end-daylight-saving-time-stalls
15 U.S. Code § 260a (daylight saving time dates and state opt-out), https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/260a
49 CFR § 71.5 (Central time zone boundary, including the four Michigan counties), https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-A/part-71/section-71.5
Sunrise and sunset times: The Mitten Daily calculation using standard solar-position formulas for each city’s center; times are approximate to about a minute.
Photo: Cbl62, “Burton Memorial Tower (2010).jpg,” October 2010, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0, cropped, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burton_Memorial_Tower_(2010).jpg

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Tags: Lansing · Daylight Saving Time · Michigan Legislature · Thomas Albert · Halloween · Weather