March 9, 2026
No :60, yes spicy takes
No leap second will be introduced at the end of June 2026
No leap second in June—devs breathe, critics yell “abolish time tweaks”
TLDR: Timekeepers say there’s no extra second added in June 2026, so clocks won’t hiccup. Commenters split between abolishing leap seconds to avoid brittle edge cases and keeping them for sky-accurate time, with surprise that it’s a manual decision and chatter about a possible future “negative” leap second.
Paris timekeepers just said there’s no leap second coming at the end of June 2026, and the internet did what it does best: argue. Curious onlookers like wlkr confessed they thought these things were routine, then went down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. Others exhaled—no infamous “:60” to break logs this summer—but the relief quickly turned into a brawl over whether leap seconds should exist at all.
On one side: the “kill it with fire” crowd. Vvector thundered that leap seconds are a burden for 99.9% of people and “astronomers can use an offset.” On the other: infrastructure veterans warning that time is the ultimate booby trap. imglorp summed it up: rare events become nasty corner cases, which is exactly why they wreck systems. Meanwhile, SeanDav learned the hard truth—there’s no neat formula for this; humans decide if Earth’s spin drifts enough. And just to spice the pot, throw0101d resurfaced talk of a future negative leap second—yes, skipping a second entirely—with an NPR explainer.
Between cries of “accuracy for astronomers” vs “stop breaking computers,” the memes rolled in: Earth “skipped leg day,” “no :60 DLC this summer,” and “patch notes: time unchanged.” No extra second, extra drama.
Key Points
- •IERS Bulletin C 71 confirms no leap second will be added at the end of June 2026.
- •The UTC–TAI offset remains −37 seconds, unchanged since January 1, 2017.
- •Leap seconds may be introduced at the end of December or June based on UT1−TAI evolution.
- •Bulletin C is issued every six months to announce or confirm leap second actions.
- •The notice is signed by Christian Bizouard, Director of the IERS Earth Orientation Center at the Observatoire de Paris, France.