Time difference between New York and Sydney

The gap is not the same all year

Every converter gives one number for this pair. That number is right for most of the year and wrong for part of it, because New York goes forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November and Sydney goes forward on the first Sunday in October and back on the first Sunday in April.

These two are in opposite hemispheres, so their summers do not overlap: New York is on summer time roughly when Sydney is not. The gap does not wobble by an hour around a settled figure — it swings between 14 hours and 16 hours and spends a good part of the year at each. There is no single right answer to give a calendar, which is why a recurring meeting between them is worth setting in one city's local time and letting the other side see it move.

About New York and Sydney

New York is UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 from March to November, and it changes clocks on different weekends from Europe — a fortnight in March and a week in autumn when the transatlantic gap is an hour off what everyone expects.

Sydney is UTC+10 in winter and UTC+11 from October to April. Its summer is the northern hemisphere's winter, so the gap to Europe and North America swings by two hours over the year rather than staying put.

What 14 hours actually costs you

There is no shared working hour at all. Nine to five in New York is 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM in Sydney. Somebody has to be outside their working day, and the only question is who — so the useful thing is to decide that once rather than rediscover it every time.

The least painful slot is 5:00 PM in New York, which is 7:00 AM in Sydney. That is 2 hours outside somebody's working day and it is the smallest that gap gets — every other hour of the clock costs more.

At 14 hours the two are far enough apart that the date stops matching. Midday in New York is 2:00 AM the next day in Sydney. "Tomorrow morning" means different things to the two of you, and a deadline given without a date attached will be missed by one side or the other.

When they can both be at their desks

Nine-to-five in New York and nine-to-five in Sydney do not overlap at all. With 14 hours between them, one side is always outside working hours, and the practical question is which side takes the early start or the late finish rather than when to meet.

New York

Sydney

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How far apart New York and Sydney are

The shortest path over the Earth's surface between the two is 15,989 km (9,935 miles). That is beyond the range of almost every airliner in service, so in practice this journey is made with at least one stop, and the time in the air alone comes to around 19 hours 45 minutes.

Over that distance you cross 14 hours of clock, which is where jet lag comes from: the body shifts by about an hour a day, so 14 hours takes most people 14 days or so to absorb. Flying east to Sydney is the harder direction — you lose the hours and have to fall asleep earlier than your body wants.

New York to Sydney, hour by hour

On the usual gap of 14 hours.

Frequently asked questions