What & When Is Daylight Savings Time? This year it ends on Sunday, November 4, 2012, usual time of 2:00 AM. More...
64Clock circa year 1857
What Is Daylight Savings Time?
This page is US-centric, but except for the start and end times, it's pretty much all the same.
The objective of Daylight Savings Time is to conserve energy. There is some dispute as to whether that objective is accomplished. The methodology used is to move one hour of sunlight from the morning to the evening by resetting the clocks.
The official abbreviation for Daylight Savings Time is DST (Standard Time being ST). So, for the east and west coast time zones for example, the designations change from EST and PST to EDT and PDT.
When Is Daylight Savings Time?
Daylight Savings Time Begins:
To move one hour of sunlight from the morning to the evening, clocks are reset ahead one hour every Spring. Currently this is done on the second Sunday of every March at 2:00 a.m. At the appointed time, the clocks are reset forward to 3:00 a.m. ("spring forward").
Daylight Savings Time Ends:
To make things as they were and move that extra sunlight hour back to the morning, clocks are reset back one hour every Fall. Currently this is done the first Sunday of every November at 2:00 a.m. At the appionted time, the clocks are reset from 2:00 a.m. back to 1:00 a.m. ("fall back"). Generally, folks aren't amused every Fall when this happens; they have become used to not having to drive/walk home in the dark every evening.
Where Is Daylight Savings Time?
Not all of the US engages in this endeavor. Both Hawaii and most of Arizona decided that they wanted nothing to do with it. Most US territories also do not observe Daylight Savings Time. These entities remain on Standard Time year-round.
The Clock-Changing Reality...
What one is "supposed" to do is reset all the clocks before going to bed. However, more often than not, that usually does not happen. The clocks get reset Sunday throughout the day; this is because there are usually so many of them. The various computer and computer-related clocks are also checked to see if they were coordinated enough to do it themselves as they are supposed to.
Daylight Savings Time changes are also supposed to be the bi-annual reminder to change your fire, smoke, and carbon monoxide detector batteries.
GMT / UTC do not do DST
In other words, as Daylight Savings Time comes and goes, the GMT / UTC offsets change. As an example, for the US East Coast, the UTC offset changes from -5 to -4 during DST. For the US West Coast, the UTC offset changes from -8 to -7 during DST.
DST World Overview
Canada is as the US; most provinces and territories take it, some leave it. Mexico is the same.
Central and South America mostly want nothing to do with Daylight Savings Time; however, Chile and parts of Brazil do indeed do DST.
Europe mostly does indeed do Daylight Savings Time. Russia, China, and all of Asia want absolutely nothing to do with it.
Australia is as the US, Canada and Mexico; majority do, but some don't.
Africa is 90% don't do DST and 10% do do DST.
World overview summary:
Looks like our species can't even agree on what time it is. But that's OK, we somehow still manage to keep muddling along. In all seriousness, geography and cultural differences do sometimes necessitate adjustments.
Pi Day
As a side note, Pi Day is celebrated the following Wednesday this year on March 14th.
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I am moving to Indiana where there has never been daylights savng time. I think it is a trick by government to crank up fuel prices.
You are going to love Indiana. :-) They have had time zone and DST fracases going on forever. Right now, they have 2 different time zones; it all depends on what county you happen to live in. And, yep. They are currently doing Daylight Savings Time; leastwise until the next fracas. :-)
Interesting Hub. I remember when I was younger that we went to daylight time the 3rd Sunday of April and went back to standard time the 3rd Sunday of October. Those dates changed since then, but some older VCR's and other automatic equipment is programed to reset automatically on those previously assigned dates. So they are inconsistent with correct time for a few weeks now. And if one manually corrects them, they become incorrect again when the time does change. So they need to be corrected twice in spring and twice in fall.
There another reason why some locations don't switch. If they are close to one side or the other of a time zone, the setting and rising of the sun is too extreme. For example, when I talk a friend on the west coast of Floria in the evening after the sun already set here in Mew York, she says the sun is still shining in the horizon. We are both in the Eastern Time Zone, but Florida is further west and much closer to the Central Time Zone than New York.
Well Indiana is out.:(
There's always most of Arizona and Hawaii. :-)
I have come to hate daylight savings time! Kids' schedules all thrown off for weeks, getting dark at 4pm. Yucko! I might move to Indiana too! Or, maybe Arizona...
georgethegent Level 2 Commenter 3 months ago
Here in Shetland, the furthest north part of the UK, we change time by an hour in the autumn and back again in the spring and because we are so far north it is a complete waste of time, more of a nuisance than anything. Don't know if you see it the same way or not.