Daylight Saving Time in the United States: What time do the clocks change and when does summer officially begin in 2017?
The clocks go forward in America soon. But at what time?
Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at exactly at 2:00 am on Sunday 12th March 2017 as the clocks go forward one hour to make it 3:00am.
The mornings will get darker and the evenings lighter and those living in participating states of the United States will lose an hour in bed.
Several states and territories of the United States practice DST, which is the act of setting clocks one hour forward during the spring, and one hour back during the fall.
Daylight Saving Time occurs in many states and territories except Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Island. Utah is considering the ending its participation in DST also.
The end of Daylight Saving time in the US signals the onset of winter.
Daylight Saving or Daylight Savings?
'Daylight Savings' = wrong. Daylight Saving Time or DST is correct. To remember which way to set your watch, there's a useful mnemonic: “spring forward, fall back”.
Who first thought up the idea of DST?
During the nine years he spent as American ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay called "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light". In it, he suggested people get up earlier to make better use of available light and save on candle wax.
But the idea really took off in 1907, when a man called William Willett introduced the idea of British Summer Time, also known as Daylight Saving Time, in 1907.
He wanted to prevent people from wasting valuable hours of light during summer mornings.
He published a pamphlet called 'The Waste of Daylight' in a bid to get people out of bed earlier by changing the nation’s clocks.
Willett proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in four incremental steps during April and reversed during September.
Willett then spent the rest of his life trying to convince people his scheme was a good one.
Sadly, he died of the flu in 1915 at the age of 58; a year before Germany adopted his clock-changing plan on April 30, 1916 when the clocks were set forward at 11 pm. Britain followed suit a month later on May 21.
By then Britain and Germany had been fighting each other in the First World War (1914-18), and a system that could take pressure off the economy was worth trying.
The Summer Time Act of 1916 was quickly passed by Parliament and the first day of British Summer Time, 21 May 1916, was widely reported in the press.
Back then the hands on many of the clocks could not be turned back without breaking the mechanism.
Instead, owners had to put the clock forward by 11 hours when Summer Time came to an end.
The Home Office put out special posters telling people how to reset their clocks to GMT, and national newspapers also gave advice.
The concept was brought to America by Robert Garland, a businessman from Pittsburgh who first came upon the idea in the UK.
The Coldplay Clocks Connection
Willett is a great-great-grandfather of Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin. This is Coldplay performing the song 'Clocks' from their 2002 album 'A Rush of Blood to the Head'. (There's also a song called 'Daylight' on there.) Coincidence?
Why do we change the clocks every year?
Supporters for the proposal argued that such a scheme could reduce coal consumption and increase the supplies available for manufacturing and the war effort during the First World War.
The idea was not a new one, however.
In 1895 an entomologist (that's an insect expert) in New Zealand, George Vernon Hudson, came up with the idea to the Wellington Philosophical Society outlining a daylight saving scheme which was trialled successfully in the country in 1927.
George W Bush and Daylight Saving Time
From 1986-2006, Daylight Saving Time began on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October.
The current timetable for Daylight Saving Time was introduced on Aug 8th 2005, however, when President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act. On this day the official end time for DST was set as the first Sunday in November.
But DST was not observed in the United States until 1981.
Has the time difference always been one hour?
Today clocks are almost always set one hour back or ahead, but throughout history there have been several variations, like half adjustment (30 minutes) or double adjustment (two hours), and adjustments of 20 and 40 minutes have also been used. A two-hour adjustment was used in several countries during the 1940s and elsewhere at times.
A half adjustment was sometimes used in New Zealand in the first half of the 20th century. Australia's Lord Howe Island (UTC+10:30) follows a DST schedule in which clocks are moved 30 minutes forward to UTC+11, which is Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) during DST.
Why we should ditch Daylight Saving Time
Those against the change say its not clear if any energy savings are made while there are also potential health risks.
Critics claim that the darker mornings are dangerous for children walking to school and the energy saving argument may be invalid if people switch on fans and air-conditioning units during the lighter, warmer evenings.
In the spring, the hour of sleep lost due to the Daylight Saving switch has been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks. On the other hand, the risk of heart attacks fell by 21 percent later in the year when an hour was added back to the clock.
Why we should keep Daylight Saving Time
There have been various trials over the decades from double summer time (GMT + 2 hours) during the Second World War to permanent British Summer Time (GMT + 1 hour) during the late 1960s but the current system of changing the clocks at the end of March and October has been in place since 1972.
Those in favour say that it would reduce traffic accidents, save energy, boost tourism and encourage more people to exercise outdoors. In the 1980s, the golf industry estimated that one extra month of daylight savings could generate up to $400 million a year in extra sales and fees.
Daylight Savings Time “affects everything from Mid-East terrorism to the attendance at London music halls, voter turnout to street crime, gardening to the profits of radio stations,” said David Prerau, author of Saving the Daylight: Why We Put the Clocks Forward.
This debate stretches years into the past, and the future of British time is still unclear.
A huge wind-up for some...
Spare a thought for the staff of the Royal Collection who spent over 50 hours adjusting over 1000 clocks spread across the official residences of The Queen last week when the clocks fell back in the UK.
Following months of planning, staff at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh will start work in the early hours of Saturday morning to ensure that the time is set accurately by the end of Sunday.
There are 379 timepieces at Windsor Castle, 500 at Buckingham Palace and 80 at the Palace of Holyroodhouse including organ clocks, astronomical clocks, musical clocks and mechanical clocks.
'Sandringham Time' - GMT+30mins
An added complication for Royal servants between the years 1901 to 1936 was the concept of 'Sandringham Time' which was introduced in by Albert, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. A keen fan of shooting, he wanted to make the most of winter daylight at the Royals' country retreat, so he ordered all clocks on the estate to be set half an hour fast.
The tradition was continued by King George V after he acceded to the throne in 1925 but King Edward VIII abolished it in 1936 shortly before his abdication.
Tips for those with tiny tots
Here are some some excellent tips to help parents and young children cope with the time change.
When the clocks first go back, mornings are lighter so ensure bedrooms are kept dark with black-out blinds or curtains.
Alter bedtime by around 10 minutes over a few days beforehand to adjust to the new time.
Maintain bedtime routines. Get ready for bed in the same order e.g pajamas on, tooth brushing, toilet, bedtime story.
Turn off all screens at least an hour before bedtime.
Offer a milky, warm drink to encourage sleepiness and avoid stimulating food and drink in the hours before bedtime.
Where will Daylight Saving Time start or end next?
The map below shows the countries in the world that have and haven't adopted DST.
In the US the clocks will go back again at 2am on Sunday, March 5, 2017.
EU countries which synchronise their DST include the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria as well as most other European countries – including Norway and Switzerland. A few European countries don't use DST at all: Russia, Iceland, Georgia, Armenia and Belarus.
Interactive: Daylight saving time map
Many countries in the Northern Hemisphere (north of the equator) observe DST, but not all.
In the Southern Hemisphere (south of the equator) the participating countries start DST between September and November and end between March and April.
