53-year leap second practice ends in May 2027

The abolition of the leap second practice, maintained since 1972 to synchronize the Earth's rotational speed with atomic clocks, has come to the agenda. If approved by member countries, the regulation is projected to take effect in May 2027.

Voting Process for the Abolition of the Practice

69 member countries of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures are preparing to vote on a historic decision foreseeing the abolition of the leap second. If the proposal is accepted, the new regulation is planned to take effect as of May 2027.

Risks Experienced in Technological Infrastructures

The process, previously targeted to be phased out by 2035, was brought forward due to the risks faced by digital infrastructures.

Interventions made at irregular intervals and announced only six months in advance caused crises in global systems operating with high precision.

Past Digital Outages

While the leap second added in 2012 locked major social media networks and airline reservation systems, short-term outages occurred in cloud service providers at the end of 2016, when it was last applied.

Negative Leap Second Risk and Planet's Speed

The most critical factor in the acceleration of the process has been the risk of a negative leap second. Although the Earth's rotational speed tends to slow down in the long term, it has recently exhibited a short-term acceleration.

This situation may create the necessity, for the first time in history, to subtract a second from clocks in the near future instead of adding a second.

New Era and Expectations in Time Measurement

With the decision to be made, the gap between atomic time and the Earth's rotation will be allowed to widen. It is calculated that it will take more than 3,000 years for the difference between the two time systems to reach one hour.