Daylight Saving Time Arrives Sunday in the States

[DR M]

All of Europe is celebrating your Name Day, Panos, by adding an extra hour of evening light.  :)   (Not to mention losing an hour of sleep.)

Yes... Today is ... Saint Panos' day, so Europeans decided to extend the light hours! zzzzz.......  ;D

Have you got used to the DST in USA??

[Corrine]

Yes and really appreciating the extra daylight in the evening when I take the dog out.  :)

[plodr]

I am not a morning person and I usually mind going to DST. This year, for some strange reason, I did not mind it and seem to be getting up around the same time as I did before the switch. (anytime between 8:15 and 9:30)

I like more light in the evening. I never complain about that.

[DR M]

Following a number of requests from citizens, from the European Parliament, and from certain EU Member States, the Commission has decided to investigate the functioning of the current EU summertime arrangements and to assess whether or not they should be changed.

https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/2018-summertime-arrangements

[Corrine]

Well, I know you're not in favor of DST, Panos.  It is only early August, not all that long past the Summer Soltice, and I'm already not thrilled with the daylight hours being shorter.   

[Corrine]

You may get your wish, Panos.  Europe ticks closer to ending daylight saving time:

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday that he will bring forward proposals to scrap daylight saving time across the 28-nation European Union.

It follows a six-week on scrapping the practice. Preliminary results from the survey 84 percent of 4.6 million respondents want to end biannual clock changes.

"The debate about summer time, winter time has been going on for a while," Juncker said in an interview with NBC News' .

"Millions have answered and are of the opinion that the summer time should count at all times, that is how it will happen."

[DR M]

You may get your wish, Panos.

It was not my wish, I only said that it would be rather difficult for younger students preparing in the dark.

Besides, I voted in favor of the DST.  :)

[plodr]

"Millions have answered and are of the opinion that the summer time should count at all times, that is how it will happen."

So it actually sounds like standard time will be scrapped.

Actually in the US, we are on DST for more months than we are on standard time.
Sunday March 11 2018 through Sunday November 4 2018 which is 34 weeks out of 52 weeks.
Perhaps we should skip falling back to standard time?

[DR M]

There is no decision yet. 80% does not want the time change. The EE will decide after analyze the results. It seems that the majority of Europeans prefers the DST, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Greek link, but the basic idea is the above I wrote: Τέλος στην αλλαγή της ώρας προανήγγειλε ο Γιούνκερ

[DR M]

Back to the Winter's Time in Europe. At 28 of October, at 4:00 o' clock in the morning, clocks will show 3:00 a.m. Countries have to decide which time they will keep, till 29th of April. It's up to each country.

[plodr]

We go back to Standard Time a week later than you on Nov. 5th at 2am.

I'm not sure why they still call it standard time because it is only standard for a few months. Daylight Savings Time will start again on March 10 2019.

So standard time is 4 months and a week.

[DR M]

We go back to Standard Time a week later than you on Nov. 5th at 2am.

I'm not sure why they still call it standard time because it is only standard for a few months. Daylight Savings Time will start again on March 10 2019.

So standard time is 4 months and a week.

"Our" DST starts on March 25. If we keep it, it will be the last time we change the clocks. If we prefer the Winter's/Standard time, we will have to do this once more, in October (28) of 2019. And that's it. No other clock change anymore.

[Pierre75]

Just to update on Australia. We have daylight savings for 6 months of the year but it commences depending in which state you live. Some states do not have it depending on their longitude.

In short when daylight savings is not in force we have 3 time zones but when daylight savings start we have 5 time zones. If you are confused so are the Aussies.  :D :D

[plodr]

I know, when I look up my friends in Adelaide versus my friends in Sydney, Adelaide isn't always hours ahead sometimes it is hours and 1/2 hours.
Right now Sydney is 15 hours ahead but Adelaide is 14 1/2 hours ahead.

[Paddy]

Ten timely facts about the changing clocks
Tick tock, it's time to change the clocks! The clocks go back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on the last Sunday in October, meaning we all get the hour back that we lost on the last Sunday in March.
But why do the clocks change twice a year? Whose idea was British Summer Time (BST)? And do other countries do it too?


1. We change our clocks for the summer to make better use of daylight
The clue is in the name. The purpose of Daylight Saving Time (or British Summer Time to the Brits) is to make better use of our daylight hours. During the northern hemisphere summer, when the sun shows its face for longer, we change the clocks so as to move an hour of light from the morning to the evening – when more of us are likely to be up, out and about. There's little point in it being sunny when we're all asleep! Of course, early risers like bakers, baristas and babies may disagree.


2. Daylight saving was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin, the founding father and inventor, first proposed daylight saving in 1784 in a not-too-catchily-titled essay called 'An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.' It was seen as a cunning way to save on candles. In Britain, it was William Willett who first ran with the idea in his 1907 pamphlet called 'The Waste of Daylight'. (Now, that's a better title.) It is said that the concept dawned on him when he was out riding his horse early one summer morning and noticed how many curtains were closed. Sadly, he never saw his idea come to fruition.


3. Germany was the first country to adopt daylight saving
Germany adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1916 with the UK following suit within a few weeks. Both countries were knee-deep in the First World War, and needed to make as much use of daylight as possible in order to conserve coal. Parliament formalised this with The Summer Time Act of 1916, which stated that from Spring through to Autumn the legal time should be one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.



4. During WWII we put the clocks forward by two hours
During the Second World War, British Double Summer Time was introduced. In the summer we put our clocks forward by a whole two hours as a means of maximising productivity; and in the winter the clocks remained one hour in advance of GMT for the same reason.


5. For three years from 1968 we got rid of BST completely
We turned our backs on British Summer Time in 1968 – although not the acronym – and adopted British Standard Time. In 1971, however, we reverted back to BST. Sorry, we mean British Summer Time. Confused?


6. BST always begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October
It's always 1am on the last Sunday in March that clocks skip forward by an hour (which means the date always changes). And we're not the only ones that go full stead ahead with summer time on this Sunday. The EU states that all member countries should adjust their clocks on the same day. With one exception - Iceland. The clocks then go back an hour on the last Sunday in October at 2am.


7. Only three European countries keep their clocks constant all year
Iceland is exempt from the EU's DST directive. It's so far north that it has much more extreme variations in daylight and darkness throughout the year than us, and the impact of changing the clock by an hour would be negligible. Belarus and Russia also choose to remain on the same time all year round.


8. Around 70 countries worldwide adopt daylight saving
Most countries that deploy daylight saving measures are in Europe and North America. For countries on the equator, where daylight hours stay roughly the same throughout the year, daylight saving offers no real benefit.


9. Two American states opt out of Daylight Saving Time
In the U.S., daylight saving is used everywhere apart from Arizona and Hawaii – who get plenty of daylight and sunshine all year round. Rebels!


10. One monarch had his own time zone
Talking of rebels... In 1901, King Edward VII decided to invent his own time zone at the royal estate of Sandringham in Norfolk. The King, an avid fan of hunting, ordered all clocks on the estate to be set to 'Sandringham Time' – half an hour ahead of GMT – in order to squeeze in an extra 30 minutes of his favourite pastime each day.


Paddy... ;D