Node.js 26's default Temporal API corrects daylight saving time drift

Node.js 26, released in May, enables the Temporal API by default without requiring a flag. The new API provides a modern date and time alternative to the legacy Date object. A key improvement is correctly handling calendar-day additions across daylight saving time boundaries, which the Date object miscalculates. The Temporal API prevents a one-hour drift error that commonly occurs in scheduling and billing code. However, this accuracy comes with a performance cost, as Temporal operations are significantly slower than Date operations.