Let’s start out with a shout out to Spencer from Mexico City who recommended making this video. You may have met Spencer in a video we did together about Social Security Disability payments in Mexico. I love it when y’all suggest video topics – be sure to reach out in the comments if you have ideas!
I’m Brighton. My wife and I moved to Mexico part time 3 years ago. We both work remotely so daylight savings time has been a challenge. In the past, Mexico and the US both did spring forward fall back. But not on the same date. So it was a mess.
Now it’s easier – but definitely not simple.
Most of Mexico stopped using Daylight Savings Time.
90% of Mexico stopped doing the change to Daylight Savings Time. But there are a couple areas that still do Daylight Savings Time. The state of Baja California continues to maintain the same time as the US state of California. So whatever California does, so does Baja California. Quick geography lesson. We live in the state of Baja California Sur, but is below the state of Baja California. It’s like Virginia and West Virginia.
The second area where the time in Mexico matches the time in the United States is along the border with Texas and New Mexico. There aren’t many immigrants from the US and Canada living in those areas, so it’s less important for this channel. An interesting note is that right here along the Arizona border, they don’t have a special time zone. And that’s because Arizona IS a special time zone. They don’t do Daylight Savings Time in Arizona – they are permanently on standard time.
How to mentally master the time changes
I never got spring forward, fall back and what that meant. Do I get less sleep or more sleep. I don’t know.
Here’s the scoop. In the winter, it’s simple. For the most part, whatever the time is in the US just north of where you are in Mexico, that’s the time in Mexico. So in La Paz and Cabo, they match Mountain Time in the winter. Mexico City matches Central Time. And if you go all the way to the east, Cancun matches Eastern Time. That’s the winter, when both countries are on Standard Time.
Now let’s talk the summer (starting the second Sunday in March.) Everything shifts, so that places in Mexico have the same time as places in the US that are one timezone to the west. You can think of it as the timezones in the US Spring Forward to the right and Mexican Time Zones stay where they are.
So La Paz and Cabo now match Pacific Time. Mexico City matches Mountain Time and Cancun matches Central Time.
Technology and Daylight Saving Time
The good news is that your Technology should handle a lot of this for you. Like if you schedule a meeting in Google, then Google should translate that time for someone living in the US or Canada.
But the confusing part comes in when you have a recurring meeting. Say you have a standing meeting with your boss a 9am La Paz time. And your boss is in LA. In February, before the “spring forward in the US,” your boss’ clock would say 8am when she meets with you. However, when the US switches to Daylight Savings Time, your clocks will match.
OK – here’s the big confusing part. Will your clocks match as 8am or will the clocks match as 9am? Or to put it another way, will you need to move the meeting to 8am from your normal 9am time, or will your boss need to move the meeting to 9am from the normal 8am time? It depends on who set up the meeting in the first place.
The good news is that Google will handle all this for you and your boss. However, your boss in the US has no idea what I’m talking about here (and there’s a good chance that you’re lost too) and if the meeting moves an hour forward in her calendar, she may be confused. All her other meetings stay at the same time because everyone else she works with in the US experienced the exact same “spring forward” that she did.
So – trust Google or Microsoft to move your standing meeting to the proper time – but note that the time may change from the time you’re used to or it may change for the other attendees back in the states or Canada.
OK – so you’re feeling pretty good about technology making your life easier, right? The problem is that some technology may be a bit confused itself. Take Alexa. As of March 3rd, the Alexa programing still plans to “spring forward” in Mexico. I’m not sure if they’ll figure this out in advance or how many other computer systems haven’t gotten the memo yet.
Practical impacts of the time change
So you know that if you’re working with folks from outside Mexico, this change will have some impact. But what about folks who’ve already retired. What other impact are there? It turns out the reason places like the US still have Daylight Savings Time is that there are pretty big impacts of not having it. For instance, without Daylight Savings Time, the sun would rise around 4:15AM in Chicago in July. And the sun would set at 7:15pm. That’s not much fun in summer.
But back to Mexico, the biggest impact will probably be in the hotter coastal towns. Compared to last summer, the higher temperatures during the day will start and end earlier. For instance in La Paz, the temperature for the last few years was over 90 degrees in late August from about 10am-6pm. But going forward, the “heat of the day” will be more like 9am til 5pm. So you’ll need to get up extra early to get in a few games of pickleball before it gets too hot. But you’ll be able to open up the windows and let the cool evening air in a little earlier too.
Making time change more confusing
OK – final segment. Up in the US, people don’t like switching their clocks around. The US senate has already passed a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent. Yes, you heard that correctly. In Mexico, we now have permanent Standard Time, but in the US, the Senate wants to have permanent Daylight Savings time. This was actually attempted back in the 1970s and people hated it. Back to Chicago – in January, this meant the sun didn’t come up until after 8am in January. It’s hard enough to wake up before the sun, but this would feel like waking up in the middle of the night! The reason the US House of Representatives hasn’t passed the Senate bill is because they cannot agree which time is the right time to keep. By the way, sleep experts say the way it’s done in Mexico should be the way it’s done in the US – always Standard Time.
If the Senate get’s their way, and the US gets permanent Savings Time, that would mean that when you drive south, the time would always change. San Antonio Texas would be 10am, but Monterrey Mexico (about due south) would be 9am. Essentially the maps line up nicely right now in the winter where driving north or south, you’d pretty much be in the same timezone. But the US idea is to permanently make them not match. Who knows what will happen in the US.
So although this is a bit confusing – it’s really confusing because of the US and Canada. If you want to simplify your life – especially if you’re retired or the concept of time otherwise doesn’t matter to you, then why not move to Mexico where the clocks never roll back or roll forward. They just keep moving in one direction – at a much slower pace.
the parts of mexico that still uses Daylight Savings time
