What time is it in Santa Cruz, California?

Santa Cruz is currently on daylight saving time. The next change is Sunday, November 1, 2026, when 2:00 am becomes 1:00 am local time.

Santa Cruz sits at 36.97°N, 122.04°W. For sunrise and sunset there — which do depend on exactly where it is, unlike the clock — see sunrise and sunset in Santa Cruz.

The clock says the same thing everywhere in Pacific Daylight Time, but the sun does not. Over Santa Cruz it is highest at 12:59 pm today — 59 minutes after clock noon.

At 122.0°W, Santa Cruz sits well toward the western edge of its zone, which is why the sun stays up later here than the clock suggests. Daylight saving adds another hour on top until the clocks change.

Today runs 12 hours 2 minutes in Santa Cruz, and the day is getting shorter by 2 minutes a day. Across the year it swings 5 hours 5 minutes, from 14 hours 42 minutes at the June solstice down to 9 hours 37 minutes in December.

At 37.0°N that puts Santa Cruz between Kailua at 2 hours 22 minutes and Fairbanks at 18 hours 9 minutes.