VERSAILLES, France — The world's official timekeepers voted Thursday to abolish the leap second, the occasional one-second adjustment that has kept atomic clocks in step with Earth's rotation for more than five decades, replacing it with a far rarer "leap hour."

The General Conference on Weights and Measures, the decision-making body of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, approved a resolution allowing Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, to drift from time based on Earth's rotation by up to one hour before any correction is required.

The change, adopted by a majority vote at the conference near Paris, will take effect on May 20, 2027, World Metrology Day.

"After 30 years of debates, we are ready," Noël Dimarcq, president of the bureau's Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency, said before the vote, according to Scientific American.

Why leap seconds exist

Modern timekeeping relies on atomic clocks, which measure seconds with extraordinary precision based on vibrations of........

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