What is the time zone of Maine?
The state of Maine is in the Eastern Time zone. All counties and cities of the state have the same time zone, there are no exceptions. Maine is observing daylight savings so there are two different clocks depending on the time of the year.
- Eastern Standard Time (EST): – 5:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
- Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): – 4:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
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If you travel to neighbouring state New Hampshire or cross the Canadian border with Quebec, you remain in the same time zone. Only when crossing the Canadian border into New Brunswick you will find yourself in the Atlantic time zone.
Daylight savings time (DST)
Maine is using daylight savings as also documented in the Uniform Time Act of 1966. During daylight savings the time changes from Eastern Standard time (EST) to Eastern Daylight time (EDT).
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.
Maine 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 Maine.
| Date | Bill | Status/Action | Title/summary |
| 24 Feb 2021 | HB1013 | To Senate Education Health and Environmental Affairs Committee | Altering the standard time in the State to be Eastern Daylight Time year-round; and making the Act subject to a certain contingency. |
| 12 Feb 2021 | SB840 | To Senate Education Health and Environmental Affairs Committee | Altering the standard time in the State to be Eastern Daylight Time year-round. |
| 29 May 2019 | LD885 | Passed to be enacted, in concurrence. | Adopt Eastern Daylight time year-round |
| 11 Apr 2019 | LD144 | Fail | An Act To Opt Out of Federal daylight saving time and To Ask the United States Secretary of Transportation To Place the State in the Atlantic Time Zone |
Other US states
You can check out information and maps of other US states by clicking on the below links.