Time is a-changin': Say goodbye to the leap second

A major change in global timing is coming soon, aimed at preventing potential infrastructure failures similar to the Y2K bug scare. On Thursday, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) voted to abolish the second leap, a temporary time adjustment that is added from time to time so tracked time standards reflect Earth's true […]

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Plans to retire it in 2035 have been accelerated to avoid possible destruction of the technology infrastructure.

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A news writer focused on creative industries, computing and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar covering hardware news and reviews.

A major change in global timing is coming soon, aimed at preventing potential infrastructure failures similar to the Y2K bug scare. On Thursday, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) voted to scrap the second leap, a temporary time adjustment added from time to time so tracked time standards reflect the Earth's actual (and inconsistent) rotation.

BIPM members had previously agreed in 2022 to stop using leap seconds in 2035 or earlier, but this has now been accelerated to take effect on May 20 next year to coincide with World Metrology Day. There is an unprecedented reason for its retirement: changes in the Earth's rotation may soon require chronometers to subtract rather than add time to keep astronomical time in line with atomic time. This has never been done before, and there are concerns that doing so could wreak havoc on critical infrastructure that relies on time synchronization.

Those fears aren't unfounded, according to Foursquare, as Reddit, LinkedIn, Yelp, and many other tech platforms have been disrupted by the addition of leap seconds in the past. Companies including Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all supported efforts to remove the system. After the BIPM vote, chronometers will instead switch to using "leap clocks", allowing atomic and astronomical time to gradually drift apart until a full hour is added - which is not expected to happen for about 3,000 years.

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