Normalizing time across machines in a distributed system. A method includes obtaining one or more points defining differences in time between machines in the distributed system. Using the points, a determination of one or more time measurement drifts between machines is made. The one or more time measurement drifts indicate changing differences in time over time. One or more traces are collected. Each trace includes one or more events. Each event is correlated to a time stamp from one of the machines in the distributed system. Using the one or more determined time measurement drifts, the time stamps are normalized.