The countdown into 2017 will take longer than usual this New Year’s Eve as scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) are to introduce a “leap second” after 23:59:59 on December 31.
The extra second is added in order to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth’s rotation, experts say.
As a result, clocks striking 00:00:00 will actually be recording a time of 23:59:60 — delaying midnight by one second.
It will be the 27th occasion the NPL has brought in a leap second due to unpredictable changes in the speed at which the planet turns on its axis.
Leap seconds can disrupt communication networks, financial systems and other apps that rely on precise timing, and must be programmed into computers to avoid function errors.
Senior research scientist of NPL, Peter Whibberley said: “Atomic clocks are more than a million times better at keeping time than the rotation of the Earth, which fluctuates unpredictably.
“Leap seconds are needed to prevent civil time drifting away from Earth time. Although the drift is small — taking around 1,000 years to accumulate a one-hour difference — if not corrected it would eventually result in clocks showing midday before sunrise.”