Home Tags Posts tagged with "Daylight Saving Time"
Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time in US will begin early tomorrow morning, so don’t forget to change your clocks.
While Americans in all but a few states will lose an hour of sleep tonight, they will gain an hour more of evening sunlight in the coming months.
Officially, the change starts Sunday, March 10, at 2 a.m., though most people are likely to reset their clocks before hitting the hay on Saturday night.
These days, making the change is less of a chore than it used to be as most people use clocks on cell phones, computers or radio clocks, which do it automatically.
However, there will undoubtedly still be victims of the time shift who will kick themselves come Sunday morning when they show up an hour late to their scheduled plans.
Authorities also use the clock change to remind people to put new batteries in warning devices such as smoke detectors and hazard warning radios.
Daylight Saving Time was established in the U.S., for states that chose to comply, during World War I.
The move came after the Germans shifted their work hours to the sun’s schedule, as a means to conserve energy resources during the war.
Daylight Saving Time will begin early tomorrow morning, so don’t forget to change your clocks
In the late ‘60, the U.S. Congress began regulating time zones and decided to allow states to decide to comply with the change. The choice must impact the entire state, counties or localities cannot choose a separate time schedule.
Canada, most states in the U.S. and Mexico observe Daylight Saving Time but only a few countries in South America will shift their clocks.
Though the majority of the 50 states comply, Arizona, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands hold out and retain the normal time schedule.
The measure is now viewed primarily as an economic consideration, shifting the daylight period to the working hours – which is why it has earned the nickname “Daylight Slaving Time”.
Daylight Saving Time will end on November 3 when clocks change back and people gain an hour, signalling that winter is again approaching.
[youtube -04nNofXBAE]
Clocks in many countries around the world will be wound back an hour this Sunday (October 28th) as they switch to Daylight Saving Time.
There will be an extra hour in bed; however, UK Government figures suggest that sticking with British Summer Time (BST) all year round could improve road safety.
Darker evenings bring a rise in road casualty rates, according to figures from the Department for Transport.
It is claimed that keeping the clocks in BST could prevent around 80 deaths and at least 200 serious injuries on UK’s roads every year.
The number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured in November is 14% higher than the monthly average. The number of cyclist casualties rise by 5% while motorcycle casualties per vehicle mile are 28% more common.
Simon Best, Chief Executive of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, believes that lighter evenings would save lives.
“While an extra hour of daylight would help to make the commute home much safer for all road users, children, cyclists and motorcyclists would benefit most,” he said.
“We want to see a three-year trial of the new daylight system. If the trial period proves the new daylight hours have a positive effect on road safety, it is clear that it is the system we should keep.
“With convincing evidence of the potential benefits, it is only right that we pilot a new system.”
The Daylight Saving Bill would have delivered a three-year trial of Greenwich Mean Time plus one hour in the winter (GMT +1) and GMT +2 in the summer.
However, the Bill was “talked out” of the House of Commons in January 2012 despite overwhelming support from 120 MPs.
David Williams, CEO of GEM Motoring Assist, added: “Changing the clocks only adds further to the dangers for road users.
“The reduced daylight hours not only mean that motorists are driving in the dark during rush hour, but pedestrians and other road users, particularly school children, are also at an increased risk.
“Poor weather, decreased visibility, and bad road conditions are all rife during the winter months and have a serious effect on the rise in number of accidents and hazardous breakdown situations.”
Don’t forget to turn your clocks one hour ahead at 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday for the daylight saving time, if you stay in the US!
Not every place makes the switch, though. Hawaii, Arizona outside the Navajo Indian territories, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas stay on standard time, which returns for the rest of us November 4, two days before election time.
Don’t forget to turn your clocks one hour ahead at 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday for the daylight saving time, if you stay in the US
Emergency officials recommend you use the bi-annual occasion as a reminder to test your safety equipment.
For example, check the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon-monoxide detectors, and replace the batteries if necessary. For those that don’t have the detectors, now is the time to buy them.
Daylight Saving Time (DST), also summer time in several countries, is the practice of temporarily advancing clocks during the summertime so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less.
Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn.
In 2011, Daylight Saving Time comes to an end in U.S. on the morning of Sunday, November 6, when you move the clocks back one hour.
In 2007, U.S. introduced the extended DST, after the Energy Policy Act of 2005 came into effect and the clocks were set back one hour on the first Sunday of November instead of the last Sunday of October.
The start of DST was also changed from the first Sunday of April to the second Sunday of March.
There’s been a number of conflicting reports about how much energy is saved from Daylight Saving Time.
In the 70’s, studies showed US saved 1% of energy nationally, which was a big motivation for adopting DST. On the other hand, states like California argue the energy savings are negligible, while another report published in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded 4 weeks extra of daylight savings time could conserve 1.3 trillion watt-hours per day, enough to power 100,000 homes for a year, reports Scientific American.
Benjamin Franklin first came up with the idea in 1784, but DST wasn’t used until World War I to conserve energy.
In 2011, Daylight Saving Time comes to an end in US on the morning of Sunday, November 6, when you move the clocks back one hour
The U.S. observed year-round DST during World War II and implemented it during the energy crisis in the 1970’s, notes the Scientific American.
Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson in 1895, whose shift-work job gave him leisure time to collect insects, and led him to value after-hours daylight. George Vernon Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift, and after considerable interest was expressed in Christchurch, New Zealand he followed up in an 1898 paper.
Not everyone across the U.S. observes Daylight Saving Time, including Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
DST is generally not observed near the equator, where sunrise times do not vary enough to justify it. Some countries observe it only in some regions; for example, southern Brazil observes it while equatorial Brazil does not. Only a minority of the world’s population uses DST because Asia and Africa generally do not observe it.
A post by Chris Kline on ABC15.com discusses why most of Arizona doesn’t observe the time change: “According to an Arizona Republic editorial from 1969, the reason was the state’s extreme heat. If Arizona were to observe Daylight Saving Time, the sun would stay out until 9 p.m. in the summer (instead of 8 p.m., like it does currently).”
