Steve Kirby letter: Time to make a change

Before the current time zone system, every town set its clock by solar noon.

The need for railway schedules to be standardized led to the time zones with which we are now familiar.

For the past few years, the Texas Legislature has considered doing away with the "spring forward/fall back" clock changes associated with Daylight Saving Time, offering Texas voters the choice of either permanent Central Daylight Saving Time, or permanent Central Standard Time.

Texas is too wide to fit in one time zone. In fact, Texas is already split, with El Paso and Hudspeth Counties in the Mountain time zone.

Solar noon in Abilene (the point where the sun is highest in its arc) varies from 12:22:30 CST, to 12:53:11 CST, averaging 12:37:42.3 CST. This mean that Abilene is, on average, 7 minutes 42.3 seconds closer to 1 p.m. than to noon.

Logically, drawing a north-south line just west of Weatherford (average solar noon 12:29:58.5), with points west of that line in permanent Central Daylight Saving Time, and east of that line, in permanent Central Standard Time, would put each half closer to its solar noon.

This split-state time zone practice is not unprecedented. Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, Kansas, Idaho, Oregon and, as previously mentioned, Texas, each sit across two time zones.

The whole state need not be bound to one time zone.

— Steve Kirby, Abilene

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Steve Kirby letter: Time to make a change