Conference Will Vote to Abolish Leap Seconds by 2027
The General Conference on Weights and Measures will meet to discuss ending leap second insertions by May 2027.
Updated on Oct. 9, 2026 in Space
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The General Conference on Weights and Measures will convene from October 13 to October 15, 2026, to weigh a proposal that would abolish the use of leap seconds. If approved, Coordinated Universal Time could become a continuous time scale beginning May 20, 2027.
Why it matters
Leap seconds have caused significant outages in high-precision computer systems since their inception. Eliminating these adjustments would simplify global digital infrastructure by allowing the discrepancy between time scales to grow up to one hour.
Since 1967, one atomic second has been defined by 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a cesium-133 atom. Recent planetary rotation has accelerated, with the shortest day recorded on June 29, 2022, falling 1.59 milliseconds short of 86,400 seconds.
The players
General Conference on Weights and Measures
This international organization is responsible for maintaining the International System of Units and global measurement standards.
This technology company utilizes time smearing to manage leap second adjustments within its massive server networks.
Meta
This social media and technology conglomerate implements custom time synchronization techniques to avoid system outages caused by leap seconds.
The details
Timekeepers have traditionally added leap seconds to align Coordinated Universal Time with the rotation of the Earth. Corporations such as Google and Meta currently mitigate disruptions by spreading the insertion of these seconds over extended intervals.
Timeline
1967: The cesium-133 atom definition of a second was adopted.
2016: The last positive leap second was added to the clock.
June 29, 2022: The shortest day in the atomic-clock era was recorded.
October 13-15, 2026: The General Conference on Weights and Measures meets.
May 20, 2027: Proposed start date for a continuous UTC time scale.
Deeper Dive
This potential shift follows a long-standing reliance on the General Conference on Weights and Measures' definition of a second, which has anchored global timekeeping for decades. The proposal marks a fundamental departure from legacy efforts to force atomic clocks to sync with planetary rotation.
Most users will notice no change as digital devices will handle the transition to a continuous time scale automatically. Software developers and network engineers will benefit from increased system stability and reduced risk of time-related server outages.
The takeaway
The move toward a continuous time scale reflects the growing dominance of digital precision over traditional planetary observation. Organizations and developers should prepare for a future where system time no longer resets to account for Earth's fluctuating rotation.
Further reading
Learn more about the latest developments in international timekeeping on our Space section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Idaho Press.
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