Leap second: Why we’re finally killing the world’s weirdest time glitch

The clock is getting a massive update

If you have no idea what a leap second is, you’re not alone. Most of us go about our lives blissfully unaware that the world occasionally forces an extra second into our clocks to keep pace with the Earth’s rotation. Well, the metrological community has officially had enough of the drama. The International Bureau of Weights and Measurements (BIPM) announced this week that it is pulling the plug on the leap second starting in May 2027.

Why are we doing this?

Since 1972, we’ve been using leap seconds to bridge the gap between our super-precise atomic clocks and the slightly chaotic, slowing spin of the Earth. It’s like trying to keep two trains on parallel tracks when one of them is randomly hitting the brakes because of moon friction and shifting oceans.

The tech nightmare

Lowkey, these extra seconds have been a total L for our software. Every time a leap second is added, it wreaks havoc on databases and APIs that rely on strict timing. Companies like Google and Meta have resorted to “smearing” the second over an entire day to avoid crashes, but others haven’t been so lucky—remember when Qantas had its booking systems absolutely borked by one in 2012?

Things were about to get way worse, too. Due to climate change—yes, it’s giving environmental crisis—melting ice is shifting the planet’s gravity and causing Earth’s rotation to speed up. Experts realized we were headed toward a “negative leap second,” which would have been a highkey catastrophe because no systems were built to handle deleting a second. As BIPM’s Patrizia Tavella put it, testing showed “several failures” with the concept. By killing the leap second, we’re avoiding a digital apocalypse before it even starts.

Why it matters

Starting May 20, 2027—which happens to be Metrology Day—we’re just going to let the seconds stack up. Will our atomic time eventually drift away from the Earth’s rotation? Sure, but it’ll take literally thousands of years for the gap to reach an hour, at which point we might introduce a “leap hour.” As for that? That’s a massive W for future generations to deal with, not us. For now, our digital infrastructure gets to breathe a sigh of relief.