Time in Houston
United States · America/Chicago · latitude 29.76°
Reading your clock…
Houston changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC-06:00 and daylight saving time is UTC-05:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Houston and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 1 November 2026 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC-06:00 |
| Sunday, 14 March 2027 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC-05:00 |
| Sunday, 7 November 2027 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC-06:00 |
Same clock, different sky: Chicago, Austin, Dallas share America/Chicago. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Houston
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 | 6 hours ahead | +5h / +6h |
| New York | 1 hour ahead | constant |
| Los Angeles | 2 hours behind | constant |
| Chicago | the same time | constant |
| Toronto | 1 hour ahead | constant |
| Paris | 7 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Berlin | 7 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Dubai | 9 hours ahead | +9h / +10h |
| Mumbai | 10 hours 30 minutes ahead | +10h30 / +11h30 |
| Singapore | 13 hours ahead | +13h / +14h |
| Hong Kong | 13 hours ahead | +13h / +14h |
| Tokyo | 14 hours ahead | +14h / +15h |
| Sydney | 15 hours ahead | +15h / +16h / +17h |
| Auckland | 17 hours ahead | +17h / +18h / +19h |
| São Paulo | 2 hours ahead | +2h / +3h |
| UTC | 5 hours ahead | +5h / +6h |
Daylight in Houston through the year
From about 10.2 hours in December to 14.1 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 | 06:55 | 17:27 | 10h 32m |
| February | 06:36 | 17:53 | 11h 17m |
| March | 06:05 | 18:12 | 12h 7m |
| April | 05:29 | 18:30 | 13h 1m |
| May | 05:05 | 18:49 | 13h 44m |
| June | 05:00 | 19:04 | 14h 4m |
| July | 05:13 | 19:01 | 13h 48m |
| August | 05:31 | 18:37 | 13h 6m |
| September | 05:47 | 18:00 | 12h 13m |
| October | 06:05 | 17:25 | 11h 20m |
| November | 06:30 | 17:03 | 10h 33m |
| December | 06:51 | 17:05 | 10h 14m |
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 Houston
What time zone is Houston in?
Houston uses the IANA time zone America/Chicago, which is UTC-06:00 in standard time and UTC-05:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers Chicago, Austin, Dallas.
Does Houston observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Houston move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 1 November 2026.
Why does the time difference to Houston keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. London is a clear example: it sits 5 hours ahead, then 6 hours ahead across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Houston get?
Around 14.1 hours at the longest, in June, and about 10.2 hours at the shortest, in December. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Houston's latitude of 29.76° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.