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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">An important change will soon be made to global timekeeping that aims to prevent potential infrastructure failures akin to the Y2K bug scare. On Thursday, the <a href="https://www.bipm.org/documents/d/guest/cgpm-2026-draft-resolution-c-en">International Bureau of Weights and Measures</a> (BIPM) voted to scrap the leap second, an ad hoc time adjustment that's occasionally added so tracked time standards mirror the Earth's real (and inconsistent) rotation.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">BIPM members <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/21/23470759/leap-second-scrapped-2035-time-computer-chaos">previously agreed in 2022</a> to cease using leap seconds on or before 2035, but this is now being expedited to take effect on May 20th next year, aligning with World Metrology Day. There's an unprecedented reason for its retirement being brought forward: changes t …</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/1012689/leap-second-discontinue-timekeeping-change">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
# Time is a-changin’: say goodbye to the leap second
Source: [https://www.theverge.com/tech/1012689/leap-second-discontinue-timekeeping-change](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1012689/leap-second-discontinue-timekeeping-change)
[](https://www.theverge.com/authors/jess-weatherbed)
Jess Weatherbed
is a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture\. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews\.
An important change will soon be made to global timekeeping that aims to prevent potential infrastructure failures akin to the Y2K bug scare\. On Thursday, the[International Bureau of Weights and Measures](https://www.bipm.org/documents/d/guest/cgpm-2026-draft-resolution-c-en)\(BIPM\) voted to scrap the leap second, an ad hoc time adjustment that’s occasionally added so tracked time standards mirror the Earth’s real \(and inconsistent\) rotation\.
BIPM members[previously agreed in 2022](https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/21/23470759/leap-second-scrapped-2035-time-computer-chaos)to cease using leap seconds on or before 2035, but this is now being expedited to take effect on May 20th next year, aligning with World Metrology Day\. There’s an unprecedented reason for its retirement being brought forward: changes to the Earth’s rotation may soon require timekeepers to*subtract*time instead of adding it in order to keep astronomical time in line with atomic time\. This has never been attempted before, and there are concerns that doing so could wreak havoc on critical infrastructure that relies on time synchronization\.
Those fears aren’t unfounded given[Foursquare, Reddit, LinkedIn, Yelp](https://www.wired.com/2012/07/leap-second-glitch-explained/), and many other tech platforms have suffered outages in the past when leap seconds have been added\. Companies including[Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon](https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/26/23278718/leap-second-computer-chaos-meta-backs-campaign-to-end-it)have all supported efforts to scrap the system\. Following the BIPM vote, timekeepers will instead switch to using “leap hours,” allowing atomic and astronomical time to gradually drift apart until an entire hour needs to be added — which isn’t expected to happen for around 3,000 years\.
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- Jess Weatherbed
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) announced it will stop issuing leap seconds in May 2027, ending a decades-long debate after concerns that a negative leap second could disrupt technology systems worldwide.
The 28th CGPM adopted Resolution 5 (2026) laying out technical actions to ensure UTC remains continuous, effectively ending leap second adjustments to keep atomic time in sync with Earth's rotation to avoid disruption of critical infrastructure.
Discussion on Hacker News about whether computer systems are prepared for the first negative leap second, with comments debating the risks and alternatives like leap minutes.
BIPM's 28th CGPM adopts Resolution 5 (2026) outlining technical actions to keep Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) continuous, raising the maximum |UT1−UTC| offset to avoid risky negative leap seconds, with a 30% probability of one by 2035.