Current time in Tucson, United States
The current local time in Tucson is shown below. Tucson observes MST.
Daylight saving time
Tucson does not observe daylight saving time. The local offset is fixed year-round.
Sunrise & sunset today
Timezone facts
- Timezone
- America/Phoenix
- Standard abbreviation
- MST
- Observes daylight saving
- No
- Country
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Business hours
- 09:00 – 17:00 local
Tucson in context
Tucson sits in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona, around 175 kilometres south of Phoenix and 100 kilometres north of the Mexican border. The city proper holds around 545,000 residents, with the wider metropolitan area at around 1.1 million. The terrain is shaped by five mountain ranges that ring the valley, with the city centre sitting at around 730 metres elevation, noticeably cooler in summer than Phoenix.
Timezone history of Tucson
Like the rest of Arizona, Tucson does not observe daylight saving time and remains on Mountain Standard Time at UTC-7 year-round. This produces an unusual relationship with the neighbouring Navajo Nation, which despite lying within Arizona's borders does observe DST, putting it an hour ahead of Tucson for half the year. The state's two largest cities, Phoenix and Tucson, never shift their clocks despite the rest of the country doing so twice a year.
Working hours in Tucson
Tucson's working economy is more diverse than its Phoenix neighbour, with the University of Arizona's substantial research operations, the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and a growing optics and astronomy sector that benefits from clear desert skies. Office hours commonly run 08:00 to 17:00 with a noticeable shift to earlier starts in the summer months. The proximity to Mexico produces strong weekly cross-border commercial traffic, with Nogales 100 kilometres south.