CDT — Central Daylight Time
Current time, offset and daylight saving status for Central Daylight Time.
Current time in CDT
09:12:26
Central Daylight Time · UTC-05:00
About CDT
CDT is the daylight saving time of the central United States.
Working with CDT
Clocks in this zone change twice a year: UTC-06:00 outside daylight saving and UTC-05:00 during it. Because CDT names only one of those two states, a time labelled CDT is ambiguous until you also know the date it refers to.
When it is noon UTC, Central Daylight Time reads 07:00; midnight UTC is 19:00 here. CDT runs 5 h behind UTC, so its calendar day begins after the reference clock’s does.
The same standard offset, UTC-05:00, is kept by EST, though each follows its own daylight saving rules — or none — so they do not stay aligned all year. One hour to the west of CDT in this directory sits CST (UTC-06:00); one hour to the east, EDT (UTC-04:00).
Clock changes in CDT
CDT follows the North American rule: clocks go forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November, at 02:00 local time.
| Date | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|
| November 1, 2026 | Clocks go back one hour on Nov 1, 2026 at 01:30, moving from UTC-05:00 to UTC-06:00. | UTC-06:00 |
| March 14, 2027 | Clocks go forward one hour on Mar 14, 2027 at 03:15, moving from UTC-06:00 to UTC-05:00. | UTC-05:00 |
Of the reference zones in the table below, New York, London, Berlin, Sydney and Los Angeles observe daylight saving, so their difference from CDT shifts twice a year; UTC, Dubai, Kolkata, Singapore and Tokyo stay fixed.
Where CDT is used
In this directory 3 cities keep CDT: Chicago, Houston and Dallas. Between them they cover United States.
Where CDT stands today
CDT is currently UTC-05:00. The next change is on November 1, 2026, 23 days from the day this page was generated, when clocks move to UTC-06:00. Until then any time expressed as CDT carries the offset shown above; after it, the same wall-clock reading corresponds to a different instant. This is the reason a difference against another zone is only reliable when you attach a date to it.
Summer time is in force now, so the offset shown is the seasonal one rather than this region's standard time.
A working day on CDT
Taking Chicago as the reference point for CDT, and a working day as 09:00 to 17:00:
- New York’s working day overlaps with Chicago’s for 7 hours, from 09:00 to 16:00 Chicago time.
- London overlaps for only 2 hours, from 09:00 to 11:00 Chicago time — late in the day at one end and early at the other.
- Tokyo has no overlap at all: when it is 09:00 there, it is already 19:00 in Chicago, so a call means an early start or a late finish for someone.
On the June solstice the sun rises in Chicago at about 05:15 and sets at about 20:29; on the December solstice it rises at about 07:14 and sets at about 16:22.
How CDT compares with other zones
Right now CDT runs ahead of Los Angeles and behind UTC, New York, London, Berlin, Dubai, Kolkata, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney.
| Zone | UTC offset | Difference from CDT |
|---|---|---|
| UTC | UTC+00:00 | 5h behind |
| New York | UTC-04:00 | 1h behind |
| London | UTC+01:00 | 6h behind |
| Berlin | UTC+02:00 | 7h behind |
| Dubai | UTC+04:00 | 9h behind |
| Kolkata | UTC+05:30 | 10h 30m behind |
| Singapore | UTC+08:00 | 13h behind |
| Tokyo | UTC+09:00 | 14h behind |
| Sydney | UTC+11:00 | 16h behind |
| Los Angeles | UTC-07:00 | 2h ahead |
Larger places currently keeping CDT: United States.
Cities using CDT
Convert CDT to another zone
Related time zones
Time zone rules: IANA tz database release 2026c, applied when this page was generated on 2026-10-09.
Frequently asked questions
What is CDT?
Central Daylight Time, CDT, is UTC-05:00. CDT is the daylight saving time of the central United States.
What is the IANA identifier for CDT?
America/Chicago — the entry that covers Chicago in the tz database. Use it rather than CDT in software: CDT names one season, America/Chicago names the rules for every date.
Does CDT change for daylight saving?
Yes — Central Daylight Time changes its clocks (standard UTC-06:00, summer UTC-05:00), as do New York, London, Berlin, Sydney and Los Angeles among the zones compared on this page.
How do I convert CDT to my local time?
One hour to the west of CDT in this directory sits CST (UTC-06:00); one hour to the east, EDT (UTC-04:00). For anything beyond that, the converter applies the rules of America/Chicago for the date you give it rather than a remembered figure.
Which cities use CDT?
In this directory 3 cities keep CDT: Chicago, Houston and Dallas. Between them they cover United States. The boundary is legal rather than geographic: it follows the borders of United States, not a line of longitude.
What should I put in a configuration file for CDT?
America/Chicago, never CDT. That entry carries the rules Chicago actually follows, including when daylight saving starts and ends, so software using it stays correct through a change that a stored offset would miss.