What is the time zone of Montana?
The state of Montana is in the Mountain Time zone. All counties and cities of the state have the same time zone, there are no exceptions. Montana is observing daylight savings so there are two different clocks depending on the time of the year.
- Mountain Standard Time (MST): – 7:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
- Mountain Daylight Time (MDT): – 6:00 UTC/GMT (behind)
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Montana borders with two other zones. You will enter the Pacific time zone when crossing the north western border with Idaho and the Central time when crossing the north eastern border with North Dakota. The clocks are unchanged when you border Wyoming, South Dakota or the southern part of the border with Idaho and North Dakota.
When you cross the Canadian border with Alberta you will remain in the same zone but entering British Columbia you will be in the Pacific time zone.
Daylight savings time (DST)
Montana is using daylight savings as also documented in the Uniform Time Act of 1966. During daylight savings the time changes from Mountain Standard time (MST) to Mountain Daylight time (MDT).
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.
Montana 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 Montana.
| Date | Bill | Status/Action | Title/summary |
| 11 May 2021 | SB254 | Chapter Number Assigned | Revising daylight savings time |
| 29 Apr 2021 | HB538 | (H) Died in Process | Create Montana standard time |
| 26 Apr 2021 | SJ17 | (S) Filed with Secretary of State | Resolution on daylight savings time |
Other US states
You can check out information and maps of other US states by clicking on the below links.