Leap second practice ends in 2027: Global time system is changing
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures has decided to abolish the leap second practice as of May 20, 2027, to prevent technical risks in digital infrastructure.
At the 28th General Conference on Weights and Measures held by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), 69 countries approved the decision to terminate the leap second practice starting May 20, 2027. This change aims to ensure the continuous progression of the time system based on atomic clocks and to prevent technical disruptions in digital systems.
Reasons for abolishing the practice
The leap second practice posed serious technical risks for modern computer systems and digital infrastructures. An extra second added to a minute could lead to unexpected failures in servers and time synchronization software.
Past outages on platforms such as Reddit, LinkedIn, and Qantas highlighted the incompatibilities of this method in the digital world. Furthermore, changes in the Earth's rotation speed were creating new risks for software by potentially necessitating negative leap seconds in the future.
A new era in the time system
With the new regulation, UTC will no longer be corrected with leap seconds based on the Earth's rotation. Instead, the flow of time will continue uninterrupted based on atomic clocks, and the difference between astronomical time and UTC will be allowed to reach up to one hour.
It is estimated that it will take thousands of years for this difference to accumulate to one hour. Thus, while the continuity of the global time standard is maintained, the technical complexities created by second-level interventions will be eliminated.
Effects on daily life
The change will not create any difference in the daily lives of individuals or the clock settings of their devices. Phones, computers, and smartwatches will continue to function normally; users will not need to perform any manual updates.
The primary impact of the change will be seen in critical infrastructure systems that require second-precision time synchronization, such as telecommunication networks, satellite navigation, financial transactions, and power grids.