The local time that does not exist
On the spring-forward date, an hour of wall-clock time is skipped entirely. Anything scheduled inside it either never fires or fires at a time nobody chose.
2026-03-08 02:30 · America/New_York → UTC
02:30 does not exist in America/New_York on that date — the clocks skipped it.
There is no instant in time that matches this local time.
What to watch for
This will bite you
That local time never happens
02:30 on 2026-03-08 does not exist in America/New_York. Daylight saving moved the clock forward across it, so there is no instant in time whose wall clock in America/New_York reads that. Anything scheduled for it either does not fire or fires at a time nobody chose.
Fix: Pick a time outside the skipped window — usually an hour later is what was meant — or store the event as a UTC instant rather than a local wall-clock time.
Note
UTC does not observe daylight saving
UTC keeps the same offset all year, so its clocks never change. If the other zone does observe it, the gap between them shifts twice a year even though nothing changes on this side.
Upcoming clock changes
America/New_York
2026-03-08T07:00:28.125Z
Clocks jump forward an hour: 03:00 is followed by 03:00, and the times in between never happen.
UTC−05:00 → UTC−04:00 (EST → EDT)
2026-11-01T06:00:00.000Z
Clocks fall back an hour: the wall clock returns to 01:00, so that hour happens twice.
UTC−04:00 → UTC−05:00 (EDT → EST)
UTC
No clock changes — this zone keeps one offset all year.
Convert your own time
Use the form on the home page, or call the API or MCP server. This page is also available as markdown.