Nothing to type and no button to press - today's half-staff status appears as soon as the page loads.
The status line names the observance when today is one of the five, or else names the next one and how many days away it is. Where an observance falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the table also shows the weekday it is observed on instead - Friday for a Saturday date, Monday for a Sunday one.
Are Flags at Half-Mast Today? (US Federal Status)
Five recurring US federal observances put the flag at half-staff every year: Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15), Memorial Day (last Monday in May, until noon), Patriot Day (September 11), National POW/MIA Recognition Day (third Friday in September), and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (December 7). This half-mast checker compares today's date against those five rules in your browser.
Everything computes locally in the browser from durable calendar rules - no upload, no account, and no network request.
The full-year table below covers this year and next year, so you can plan ahead around a known, recurring observance - useful for schools, government offices, or veterans' organizations that lower flags on these dates every year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are flags at half-mast today?
On load this page compares today's date against the five recurring US federal half-staff observances and states whether today is one of them.
Which dates does this cover, and when is the next one?
Peace Officers Memorial Day, Memorial Day (half-staff until noon local time, then full staff), Patriot Day, National POW/MIA Recognition Day and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. The table on the page lists this year and next year with exact dates, and names the next one and how many days away it is.
Does this track flag orders issued after a death or tragedy?
No. This does NOT track proclamation-driven half-staff orders following a death or tragedy - those are announced case-by-case and cannot be predicted from any fixed rule; the page links the official GSA half-staff notice page for that.