Time in Edinburgh
United Kingdom · Europe/London · latitude 55.95°
Reading your clock…
Edinburgh changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC+00:00 and daylight saving time is UTC+01:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Edinburgh and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 25 October 2026 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+00:00 |
| Sunday, 28 March 2027 | 01:00 → 02:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC+01:00 |
| Sunday, 31 October 2027 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+00:00 |
Same clock, different sky: London, Manchester share Europe/London. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Edinburgh
Where a range is shown, the gap genuinely changes during the year. That is not rounding or hedging — it is two governments moving their clocks on different weekends.
| City | Difference now | Across the year |
|---|---|---|
| London | the same time | constant |
| New York | 5 hours behind | −5h / −4h |
| Los Angeles | 8 hours behind | −8h / −7h |
| Chicago | 6 hours behind | −6h / −5h |
| Toronto | 5 hours behind | −5h / −4h |
| Paris | 1 hour ahead | constant |
| Berlin | 1 hour ahead | constant |
| Dubai | 3 hours ahead | +3h / +4h |
| Mumbai | 4 hours 30 minutes ahead | +4h30 / +5h30 |
| Singapore | 7 hours ahead | +7h / +8h |
| Hong Kong | 7 hours ahead | +7h / +8h |
| Tokyo | 8 hours ahead | +8h / +9h |
| Sydney | 9 hours ahead | +9h / +10h / +11h |
| Auckland | 11 hours ahead | +11h / +12h / +13h |
| São Paulo | 4 hours behind | −4h / −3h |
| UTC | 1 hour behind | −1h / 0 |
Daylight in Edinburgh through the year
From about 7.0 hours in December to 17.6 hours in June. This is the part a plain clock leaves out: 17:00 is a bright evening in one month and long dark in another.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 08:15 | 16:08 | 7h 53m |
| February | 07:15 | 17:15 | 10h 0m |
| March | 06:03 | 18:14 | 12h 11m |
| April | 04:43 | 19:17 | 14h 34m |
| May | 03:39 | 20:15 | 16h 36m |
| June | 03:13 | 20:50 | 17h 37m |
| July | 03:43 | 20:30 | 16h 47m |
| August | 04:41 | 19:26 | 14h 45m |
| September | 05:41 | 18:05 | 12h 24m |
| October | 06:41 | 16:48 | 10h 7m |
| November | 07:47 | 15:45 | 7h 58m |
| December | 08:29 | 15:27 | 6h 58m |
Daylight length is accurate. The clock times of sunrise and sunset assume each city sits at the centre of its time zone, which can put them up to about an hour and a quarter out for places near a zone's edge — Madrid being the standard example. Day length is unaffected.
Questions
About time in Edinburgh
What time zone is Edinburgh in?
Edinburgh uses the IANA time zone Europe/London, which is UTC+00:00 in standard time and UTC+01:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers London, Manchester.
Does Edinburgh observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Edinburgh move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 25 October 2026.
Why does the time difference to Edinburgh keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. New York is a clear example: it sits 5 hours behind, then 4 hours behind across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Edinburgh get?
Around 17.6 hours at the longest, in June, and about 7.0 hours at the shortest, in December. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Edinburgh's latitude of 55.95° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.