What is the time zone of New Mexico?

The state of New Mexico is in the Mountain Time zone. All counties and cities of the state have the same time zone, there are no exceptions. New Mexico 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)
Mountain Time
us state New Mexico counties time zone map
New Mexico time zone
USA states time zones
Click to enlarge

The neighbouring states of Colorado, Arizona and Utah are in the same time zone. But you will be entering the Central Time zone when crossing the border with Oklahoma or the eastern border with Texas (only the southern Texas counties of El Paso and Hudspeth also observe the Mountain time).  

Daylight savings time (DST)

New Mexico 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.

New Mexico 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 New Mexico.

Date Bill Status/Action Title/summary
16 Mar 2021 SM27 To House Commerce & Economic Development Committee Keep Daylight Savings Year-round
5 Mar 2021 SB102 To House Commerce & Economic Development Committee Daylight Saving Time
5 Feb 2020 SB272 Action Postponed Indefinitely Permanent Daylight Savings Compact

Other US states

You can check out information and maps of other US states by clicking on the below links.