What is the time zone of Kansas?
Kansas is divided into two time zones. Vast majority of the state, including the cities of Wichita, Kansas City and Overland Park are in the Central Time zone and observing daylight savings so there are two different clocks depending on the time of year.
- Central Standard Time (CST): – 6:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
- Central Daylight Time (CDT): – 5:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
Only four counties in the west, covering about 6% of the state, are in the Mountain Time zone and also observe daylight savings so there are two different clocks depending on the time of year.
- Mountain Standard Time (MST): – 7:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
- Mountain Daylight Time (MDT): – 6:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
| Central Time |
| |
| Mountain Time |
| |
Zone boundary
The Kansas boundary line between two time zones covers the counties of Sherman, Wallace, Greeley and Hamilton. These counties follow Mountain time just as their neighbouring counties in Colorado.
The official border is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §71.7. (d):
Daylight savings time (DST)
Kansas is using daylight savings as also documented in the Uniform Time Act of 1966. During daylight savings the time changes from Standard time to Daylight time, so CST becomes CDT and MST becomes MDT depending on the location.
It starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. In March the clock is moved forward from 02.00 am to 03.00 am (so you will lose an hour of sleep during the night). While in November it’s reversed as the clock is moved backward from 03.00 am to 02.00 am and you will gain an extra hour of sleep. One way of remembering the movement sequence is that clocks “spring forward and fall back”.
The total period of daylight savings lasts for 34 weeks which is about 65% of the year.
Kansas time news, bills and legislation
There is a continuous debate about which time should be applied. Several bills have been introduced to legalize daylight saving time as the year-round clock, whereas others try to align the time with bordering counties or states. The table below gives an overview of the latest bills in the state of Indiana.
| Date | Bill | Status/Action | Title/summary |
| 11 Feb 2021 | HCR5008 | Intro, To House Federal and State Affairs Committee | Urging the U.S. congress to extend daylight saving time throughout the year for the whole nation. |
| 13 Jan 2021 | HB2060 | Intro, To House Federal and State Affairs Committee | Establishing daylight saving time as the permanent standard time for the state of Kansas. |
| 21 May 2020 | HB2422 | House Died in Committee | Establishing daylight saving time as the permanent standard time in Kansas. |
| 21 May 2020 | HB2008 | House Died in Committee | Exempting Kansas from daylight saving time. |