It’s always the same every year: Poland and the USA change their clocks on different dates, and for a few days, the calculation that the Polish-American community uses for every phone call to family shifts. This year, that “window” lasts from Sunday, October 25, to Saturday, October 31.
When exactly the time changes
In Poland, daylight saving time ends on the night of Saturday to Sunday, October 25, 2026: at 3:00 a.m., clocks are turned back to 2:00 a.m. This date results from the regulation issued by the Prime Minister on March 4, 2022, which set the dates for time changes for the years 2022–2026. In most of the United States, daylight saving time ends on Sunday, November 1, 2026, at 2:00 a.m. local time, when clocks are turned back to 1:00 a.m. This does not apply to Hawaii and most of Arizona, which do not change their clocks.
How many hours difference this week
If Poland is already on standard time (UTC+1) and the East Coast is still on daylight saving time (UTC−4), the difference is five hours. This follows directly from the time zone difference. In practice, from October 25 to 31:
- New York and Florida (most of the state): 5 hours instead of 6. When it is 6:00 p.m. in Warsaw, it is 1:00 p.m. in New York.
- Chicago: 6 hours instead of 7. 6:00 p.m. in Poland is 12:00 noon.
- California: 8 hours instead of 9. 6:00 p.m. in Poland is 10:00 a.m.
Starting Sunday, November 1, everything returns to the usual calculation: 6, 7, and 9 hours.
What to watch out for in practice
The biggest risk is meetings scheduled “at the usual time.” A conversation with family, a video conference with a Polish company, a doctor’s visit in Poland via the internet, or a webinar featuring speakers from Poland may happen an hour earlier or later this week than habit suggests. When scheduling an appointment, it is a good idea to state the time in both zones, for example, “6:00 p.m. in Poland, 1:00 p.m. in New York.” The same applies to airline tickets: the departure and arrival times on the ticket are given in the local time of the airport, so there is no need to convert anything, but when picking up loved ones from the airport, it is worth checking the current schedule.
It is also worth remembering children and seniors in the family. Grandma in Poland, who is used to a phone call “after dinner” from New York, might pick it up at a different time of day this week than the grandchild on the other side of the ocean assumes. A good habit is to add the second time zone to your phone’s calendar and clock: smartphones allow you to add a clock for Warsaw, which automatically accounts for the time change in both countries.
Sensitive deadlines, such as the time of a call at the consulate or an online visit, are best confirmed in a message from the institution, paying attention to which time zone the time was given in.
When planning a trip to visit family or purchasing tickets for Polish holidays, it is worth checking out Polish-American travel agencies and hotels in the Polish Pages directory.
