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Every Year in Chicagoland

When does Daylight Saving Time end in Chicago and when does it get dark

Daylight saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Chicago. Here are sunset times through December and where the clock-change bill stands.

By Hellgin6 min read

You'll be handing out the last of the Halloween candy on Saturday night with some light still left in the sky. A week later you'll be pulling into the driveway after work in the dark. In Chicago, daylight saving time ends early Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. After that, sunset comes before 5 p.m. and doesn't come back after it until the new year. Here's the date, the sunset times through December, and the latest on whether this could be the last time the clocks change.

The short answer

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. At that point, clocks go back one hour to 1 a.m. The simplest way to handle it is to set your clocks back before bed on Saturday, Oct. 31. You get an extra hour of sleep, and you should wake up to clocks that are already right.

That extra hour costs you evening light. On Halloween, the sun sets around 5:47 p.m. The next day, the first day of standard time, it sets around 4:46 p.m. Overnight, about an hour of daylight moves from the end of your day to the start of it.

Standard time runs all winter. Daylight saving time starts again on Sunday, March 14, 2027, when clocks jump ahead from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.

When it gets dark, week by week

These are approximate times for Chicago. Different calculators can disagree by a minute or two, and the suburbs will be a little off depending on how far east or west you are.

  • Sat., Oct. 31 (Halloween): sunrise 7:20 a.m., sunset 5:47 p.m.
  • Sun., Nov. 1 (standard time begins): sunrise 6:21 a.m., sunset 4:46 p.m.
  • Sun., Nov. 15: sunrise 6:38 a.m., sunset 4:31 p.m.
  • Thu., Nov. 26 (Thanksgiving): sunrise 6:51 a.m., sunset 4:23 p.m.
  • Mon., Nov. 30: sunrise 6:56 a.m., sunset 4:22 p.m.
  • Tue., Dec. 8: sunrise 7:04 a.m., sunset about 4:20 p.m.
  • Mon., Dec. 21 (winter solstice): sunrise 7:13 a.m., sunset 4:24 p.m.
  • Thu., Dec. 31: sunrise 7:16 a.m., sunset 4:30 p.m.

The mornings change the most at first. On Halloween the sun comes up at 7:20 a.m. The next morning it's up at 6:21, so kids heading to school the first week of November get daylight again.

That doesn't last. Sunrise slides about a minute later each day, and by early December it's past 7 a.m. again. Meanwhile, sunset keeps moving earlier all through November. By Thanksgiving, it's dark before 4:30 p.m. Plan on it being dark by the time you sit down for dinner.

The darkest stretch

Most people assume the earliest sunset falls on the shortest day of the year. It doesn't. In Chicago, the earliest sunset comes around Dec. 8, at about 4:20 p.m. Some calculators put it a day later and a minute or two different, but either way it lands in the second week of December.

By the winter solstice on Dec. 21, sunset has already moved later, to about 4:24 p.m. Mornings are the slow part: sunrise keeps getting later until early January. On Dec. 21 the sun comes up at 7:13 a.m. By New Year's Eve it's 7:16, even though sunset has moved to 4:30.

The solstice is still the shortest day overall, with a little over nine hours between sunrise and sunset. What changes after it is when that daylight falls. The evenings start getting longer in mid-December, while the mornings stay dark into the new year. If you're out the door before 7 a.m., the worst of it lasts into January.

Is this the last time?

Almost certainly not. Congress came closer this year than it has before, but the bill stalled.

On July 14, 2026, the U.S. House passed the Sunshine Protection Act (H.R. 139). NPR Illinois called the vote "overwhelming," and other reports put it at 308–117. The bill would make daylight saving time permanent. Clocks would stop changing, and winter evenings would stay lighter.

Since then the bill has been in the Senate, which sent it to the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The Senate hasn't voted on it, and NPR Illinois reported that regional politics could stop it there. Nothing has passed both chambers, so the clocks go back on Nov. 1 as usual. The Senate has been on the other side of this before: in 2022 it passed a version of the bill unanimously, and that version died in the House.

Illinois hasn't settled it either. Springfield has seen bills in both directions. Two 2025 bills to put Illinois on daylight saving time year-round, HB 39 and HB 1400, failed. This year, Rep. Daniel Didech filed HB 5400 to go the other way and keep Illinois on standard time all year. The National Conference of State Legislatures lists it as pending.

Even if Illinois wanted permanent daylight saving time, it couldn't do it alone. Federal law lets a state opt out of daylight saving and stay on standard time all year, but not the reverse. A state can't stay on summer time year-round unless Congress changes the law.

Quick tips for Chicagoland

  • Check your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Changing the clocks is an easy reminder to test them and swap the batteries.
  • Plan for darker drives home. The first week of November, the evening rush suddenly happens at dusk. Watch for people walking and biking, especially kids out after school, and turn on your headlights earlier than you're used to.
  • Know which clocks change themselves. Phones, computers and most smart devices update on their own. The microwave, the oven, older car dashboards and wall clocks usually don't. Fix them Saturday night or you'll be doing the math all week.
  • Calling out of state? Hawaii and most of Arizona don't change their clocks, so your time difference with family there shifts by an hour after Nov. 1.
Sources (13)

Photo: It's Always a Party Here by JFXie, BY 2.0.